Work-hardening, carbon steel wire, and the benefits of shot blasting to prevent decarburisation.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 158\5\ scan0052 | |
| Date | 23th January 1940 | |
| - 2 - Continued:- rough parts, as far as I know they are not used in England for work-hardening purposes, and the intensity of work-hardening is apparently greater due to the hard backing of the hardened carbon steel carrying the decarburised skin. I am afraid we have no rigs which can be permitted to run to twenty million reversals as the engine is our final test - rigs only being looked upon as first intention testing. We certainly do not agree that the value of Chrome Vanadium commences with .225" diameter wire, as we have irrefutable evidence of its superiority down to .136" diameter wire. We have had experience in this country of hard drawn carbon steel wire which is drawn to a tensile figure of 130 tons. We have personally tried this material at all tensiles from 100 tons to 130 tons, but in no case could we obtain any real reliability until we had spent a considerable amount of time and energy in modifying the method of drawing, and if decarburisation is prevented from occurring - as it can be, by suitable methods - I see no special reason why the wire should have its "morale" raised by shot blasting to a higher figure than could be achieved by "drawing" only. The one advantage of shot blasting is that apparently decarburisation is a regular disease with carbon steel wire and the shot blast is a sure method of eradicating it. BY. {R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} | ||
From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).