Method of Plating Metals with Aluminium and other Metals, such as *Platinum, Gold, and Silver.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Oct., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 28th Aug., 1889-Accepted, 28th Sept.,
1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Method of Plating Metals with Aluminium and other Metals, such as
*Platinum, Gold, and Silver.
We, LEON QUENTIN' BRIN Engineer of 6 Rue Wilhem Auteuil near Paris &
ARTHUR BRIN, Engineer, 59 Brompton Crescent, Kensington S.W. London do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
We prepare a Flux of an Aluminous character & as already described in previous
applications for Letters Patent (dated March 7 1888 and respectively numbered 3547
and 3548) relating to the Production of Aluminium & its alloys & which flux consists
of a mixture of Aluminous Ore such as Clay Bauxite Cryolite & with Salt, Fluor Spar,
& Borax, in proportions as may be required & we coat the objects to be plated with
this Flux in a pasty condition."
We dry these objects so prepared in a suitable Kiln or by suitable means.
We then introduce the objects so prepared & covered, into a furnace which has a
sufficiently high temperature to reduce the Flux used, at the same time we add a
coating of powdered metal to produce the required coating, onto. the surface of the
Dried Flux & we so obtain a coating of the introduced metal onto the metallic object
operated on by exposure in the Furnace.
By this means we get a perfect cohesion of the metallic coating with the object
plated this is obtained by the reduction of the Aluminium to a metallic state which
thus forms an intermediary alloy with both metals.
It is evident, that for purposes, say of Armament; where the external face of a
plate is required to be of extreme hardness and the backing of ordinary toughness, it
is competent to make the face of Aluminized Steel on a plate of whatever thickness,
without in any way altering the quality of the Steel of which the plate as a mass is
composed and to temper this face to a hardness at present impossible & without
detriment to the homogeneity of the Plate.
It is evident that the objects to be plated must be of a metal which has a high point
of fusion.
Altho the coating with Iron by Aluminium is quoted as an example here the
saime process can be followed & the same flux used to coat Iron with Copper, Gold,
Silver, Platinum &c. or equally Silver Gold &c. with Aluminium.
Dated this Twenty-ninth day of October 1888.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Method of Plating Metals with Aluminium and other Metals, such
as Platinum, Gold, and Silver.
We, LÉON QUENTIN BRIN, and Arthur Brin, of 59, Brompton Crescent, South
Kensington, London, S.W. do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This Invention relates to an improved process of plating or coating metals (such as
iron, steel, or copper) having a relatively high melting point, with other metals such
as aluminium, platinumi, gold, or silver.
The process consists essentially in applying the plating metal in a powdered or
finely divided state to the metal to be plated and in effecting the union of the two by
the employment as a flux of an aluminium-yielding mixture such as hereafter
described.

page_text: The flux is similar in character to that described in the specifications of previous
applications for Letters Patent, dated the 7th day of March 1888 and respectively
numbered 3547 and 3548, and is composed of a mixture of an ore of aluminium
such as clay, bauxite, cryolite, etc., common salt, fluor-spar, and borax, in suitable
proportions such for example as
These ingredients are ground fine and intimately mixed and made into a paste with
water. With this paste may be incorporated the metal in a finely divided state
with which the article is to be coated or plated; or this metal may be subsequently
applied as hereafter described.
In either case, the articles to be plated are coated with this paste and dried in a
suitable kiln. The articles so coated are then to be placed in a muflle furnace, or
hearth heated to a sufficiently high temperature to reduce the flux and melt the
plating metal. If the flux does not contain the plating metal the latter in a finely
divided condition is dusted over the flux-coated objects (which are removed from
the muffle for the purpose) when the flux has become so far fused as to acquire an
adhesive surface. The articles are then returned to the muffle and subjected to an
increased temperature sufficient to melt the plating metal and cause the same to flow
or flash over the surface of the metal to be plated.
By the employment of this aluminium yielding flux, the metal to be plated is pro-
tected from oxidation and the plating metal is likewise protected from oxidation and
from volatilization, whilst the intermediary aluminium alloy obtained by the reduction
of the flux lowers the fusing points of the metal to be plated and of the plating metal
and, by alloying with both metals, effects a more perfect and more rapid union, the
metal to be plated becoming impregnated to a certain depth with the plating metal
and at the same time being superficially coated with a nearly pure, uniform, and
perfectly adherent, layer of the plating metal.
By coating plates of iron or steel with the flux and by adding powdered metallic
aluminium thereto, as above described, we are enabled to heavily face or coat the iron
or steel with aluminium without being obliged to raise the former to its melting point.
The surface of the plate so coated may be hardened or tempered to a degree hitherto
unattainable, whilst retaining the original toughness and homogeneity of the mass of
the plate. Plates so coated on one face are eminently suitable for armor-plating and
other purposes where superficial hardness combined with structural toughness are
desirable.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :
The herein described process of plating metals with aluminium and other metals
such as platinum, gold or silver, which consists in coating the metal to be plated with
an aluminium yielding flux such as described, and with the plating metal in a finely
divided state, and exposing them to a suitable temperature, as specified.
Dated this 28th day of August 1889.
"זבז טוני
Doted this 28th day of August 1889.
L. Q. BRINT
A. BRIN.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agents.