Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-07

transmission drum which required 7e
| seconds with high-speed tools.
I'm certain other processes" Mr..
Prosser said, "they have been able to
| increase the capacity OF their shop by
| 400 per cent with their existing ma
chimes and without any increase IN the
number of men. In cutting aluminium
alloy pistons the speed was increased
| by 500 per cent.
Treatment Found Costly.
THE high price of the metal is partly
due to the costly process of manufac-
ture, Tungsten, carbon and cobalt are
cheap enough in themselves, but they
have to be refined to an extreme degree
for use in this steel and divided very
finely. The fact the Krupp plant is
only producing a ton a month today
is an indication of the difficulty of
manufacture. While it Is capable OF
speeding up all metal cutting processes,
the Vida has it's greatest advantage in
working cast iron, which it cuts sew
eral times as fast as any other metal
will do. A special silicon carbide grind
ing wheel is necessary to sharpen it,
ptdly in the process.
FOR rock-drilling purposes the Krupp
plant is producing special quality OF
Vida as a substitute for diamonds on
the brace-and-bit drills used in sinking
oil wells and other drills The ordinary
Vida stands 98 on the scale Of hard
ness, being topped only by diamonds,
which have hardness of 10. Whether
this special Vida for rock drilling Is as
hard as diamonds do not know. ut
ha5 to be melted and welded on to the
drills"
Machine tool manufacturers. it was
learned, are rather stunned at the price
of $500 a ton which Is now being
quoted. The general belief is that, in
spite of the costly process of making
the metal it could be sold at profit
for one-tenth Of the present figure.
Value Held Drawback.
Many machine tool makers believe
that the success of the German product
will inspire other laboratories to achieve
equal results without infringing the
German patents, SO that the price may
be draStically cut in a few years. The
present value of the material is seri-
Gus drawback in another way, it was
pointed out by an experienced manu-
facturer yesterday. This is its liability
to theft. The guarding of product
worth twice its weight in gold In shops
employing thousands of workmen is no
small problem in itself. Ernest F. Du
Bral, general manager of the National
Machine Tool Builders Association, in
bulletin on the subject to members of
the association, said:
Broadly speaking, these alloys make
every respectable machine shop that has
any money available a potential market
for complete new equipment within
10 years. When high-speed steel gave
it similar market 81 years ago the
total number of machine tools in use
at that time was far less than it is to-
day, with all the new industries which
have been established since 1900. Is it
too far-fctched to think of selling $780,
900 new machines in 10 years?"
Revolution Good or ILL.,"
In another bulletin the same associa-
ton said:
THE machine tool revolution now
impending is sure to affect for good or
i'll the future of every concern now in
the association. The revolution will be
either disastrous or profitable in any
given case largely as executive vision
comprehendS the possibilities and ne
ceSsities that the revolution is thrust
ing on the industry"
The interest of manufacturers Is re-
hected in the American MachiniSt Of
January 8, 1929, which says:
IF some of the more conservative
machinery building industries were
suddenly faced with the introduction
Of factor as unsettling as the new
tungsten carbide and other cutting al
Toys promise to be, one would be JUS
titled in looking for q catastrophe. But
the machine tool builders have been
earning their livelihood for so long
by bringing out new designs and SELL
ing them to customers whose equip
ment was still far from worn out that
the existing situation can be faced with
considerable equanimity. There can be
little question that the new alloys
are going to have a profound effect once
we can get them in sufficient quanti-
ties to conduct experiments to see what
they really will do"
Praises Value OF CarbOl0y.
Describing laboratory work on the
tungsten carbon cobalt metal, which
the General Electric Co. is making I'M
der the name of carboioy, DIR. Samuel
L. Hoyt said:
THAT such strength, hardness,
toughness and chemical stability, plus
the ability to take and keep cutting
edge, must characterize material Of
most extraordinary possibilities, as
compared with our present tool mate
rails, is Self-evident to all who are
conversant with this field. But we
have found that the performance of
carboloy on the lathe and in the shop
does actually exceed the predictions
which one might make from knowl-
edge of these properties.
"Glass proved to be quite easy to
machine or to cut with screw threads
and we soon found that hard porcelain
insulators could be machined on a
shaper.
"Mycalex is an insulating material
of such excellent properties that there