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).
Results of experiments with nickel and nickel-chrome alloys in iron castings.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 14\3\ Scan018 | |
| Date | 26th September 1928 | |
| X7050 BY11/G.26.9.28. R.{Sir Henry Royce} C. BJ. C. Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} C. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} -------- IRON CASTINGS. -------- Referring to R1/M23.5.28. I was under the impression that I had explained what had been done up to date at the time your memo was written. In looking through my files I cannot find that I wrote. We had been trying over an interval of 18 months prior to your memo the use of nickel and nickel chrome in various casts of our material for chassis cylinders. Our cylindermaterial, however, appeared to have been so good and regular that one could not urge strongly the adoption of the scheme. In the meantime, however, we had been in touch again with the people who advocated the use of nickel alone, but found that in adding the nickel to the ladle with our present cupola it was almost impossible to get the iron sufficiently hot to enable the nickel to be absorbed and then the metal run to produce satisfactory castings, the cooling down of the metal by the addition of the nickel causing sluggishness in the smaller sections of the mould. At the time we received your memo we were also experimenting with special irons which contained vanadium as a result of the latter being in the ore. This did not give any improved results over our standard iron. We then reverted to nickel again, but this time arranged to buy a high nickel iron alloy to feed into the cupola with the iron and the results we have obtained are distinctly promising. We obtained an increase in strength of three tons over the average for our ordinary iron, the ordinary iron being 14.4 lbs. and the nickel cast iron 17.4, with an increase of brinell from 229 in our standard iron to 241 in the nickel iron. In addition micro examination shows that the graphite is more evenly distributed throughout the iron in the nickel alloy, being in smaller flakes and somewhat regularly arranged. One is inclined to think that this represents a distinct advance. We are doing a number of casts by this new method, and if the results hold we shall standardise as from a wearing point of view the more intimate mixture of graphite in the iron with smaller flakes is undoubtedly better from a wearing point of view. The amount of nickel which gives the best results | ||