Improvements in or relating to Uniting or Welding Metals.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Apr., 1897-Accepted, 21st Aug., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Uniting or Welding Metals.
I, JAMES ANDREWS, Civil Engineer, of Nunnery Hill, Allegheny City, State of
Pennsylvania, United States of America, 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 uniting or welding metals.
The object is to unite copper or alloys thereof with other metals, so as to produce
metal plates and other articles of metal, having one or both faces of copper, or of
copper alloyed with other metals, the whole constituting a compound metal.
Heretofore, while it has been possible to coat or plate iron and steel plates with
copper, the two metals have not been practically and successfully united by welding.
The purpose of this invention is to weld together plates, sheets, bars, or other
forms of steel or iron and copper or alloys thereof, in such manner as to effect a
perfect and intimate union between the two metals.
To this end, the invention consists in the process hereinafter described, in which
the plate, bar, or other article of iron or steel is first cleansed from scale or oxide;
its surface or surfaces then covered with a coating or deposit of copper or an alloy
of copper, or any other suitable metal or alloy thereof, capable of being deposited,
by chemical or electrical deposition or otherwise, in this instance, by the action
of a bath of a solution of the salts of copper; it is then placed face to face with a
sheet or plate of copper or an alloy thereof; then heated to the proper degree;
and finally, passed through rolls or subjected to pressure requisite to effect the
perfect and intimate welding of the metals.
I will now describe the invention, so that others skilled in the art to which it
appertains may employ the same.
The invention may be applied to various forms or shapes of metal, such as
plates, bars, rods etc.; but, for the sake of brevity, I will confine this description
to the welding of sheets or plates of metal, it being understood that only mechanical
skill is required in adapting the process to other forms or shapes; and, although
either iron or steel may be welded or plated with copper or an alloy thereof, or any
other metal or alloy of the same, I use the word steel, the process being the same
with either of the two metals.
The plate of steel is first carefully cleansed from oxide or scale in any preferred
manner, in this instance by the use of a bath of sulphuric acid, in the usual
manner of removing such oxide, and it is then ready to receive a coating or surface
of copper, or an alloy thereof, or of any other suitable metal or alloy thereof,
capable of being deposited by chemical or electrical deposition, or otherwise, the
deposit of metal having a lower fusing point than the plate on which it is applied,
or, in other words, the deposit of metal and the sheet to be united to the plate so
treated are to have substantially the same fusing point. In this instance, the
plate of steel is placed in a bath of a solution of one of the salts of copper. This
bath may be formed by dissolving sulphate of copper in weak sulphuric acid;
but I do not desire to limit myself to the sulphate of copper, or to the sulphuric
CD
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page_text: acid, as any equivalent salt or acid may be substituted therefor. The plate 19
allowed to remain in this bath until its surface or surfaces will be covered with a
deposit of copper, or an alloy thereof, which is generally accomplished in from
one-half of an hour to an hour. The plate is then removed from the bath and a
sheet of copper or an alloy thereof, or of any other suitable metal or an alloy
thereof, of any desired thickness is placed on or against the face of
the plate that has had the copper deposited upon it, and is secured
thereon, in any convenient manner, as by bending the edges of the copper plate,
or the like, over the edges of the steel plate or in order to save waste, tangs may
be provided at the corners, or at suitable intervals, and be bent to embrace the
steel plate. Where the steel plate is to have both faces of copper or the like,
two plates of the same are secured to the steel plate one on each side or face thereof.
The plate of steel with the copper plate or plates, or alloys secured thereto, is
then placed in a suitable furnace and subjected to a heat of about seventeen
hundred degrees, more or less, Fahrenheit. After the plates are properly heated,
they are removed and passed through rolls, or other pressure-exerting mechanism,
thereby effecting the perfect welding together of the plates.
As above stated I may instead of using pure copper employ alloys of the same,
such as Muntz's metal, or brass may be employed in a like manner as the copper,
excepting with some alloys, a greater or less heat may be required, prior to welding
as will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
It is to be understood that this invention is not to be limited to the mere facing
of a sheet or plate of iron or steel with copper or the like, as I may weld together
two or more sheets or plate of the same metal such as two sheets of steel, and
of the same or different hardness; to build up armour plate, or for sheathing for
vessels, may employ iron or steel faced with yellow or ships metal. Where two
sheets or plates of steel are to be united, one or both of them may have the copper
deposited thereon in the manner already described, and by heating the plates until
the copper is at its fusing point and applying pressure, these two steel plates may
be firmly united.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
1. A compound metal, substantially as herein described.
2. The process of uniting or welding metals, substantially as herein described.
3. The herein-described process of uniting, or welding plates of metal of different
kinds, which consists in cleansing one of the plates from scale, oxide or other
impurities then coating or covering one or more faces of this plate with a metal
or an alloy thereof having a lower fusing point, then applying to this coated
surface a plate of metal or an alloy of the same character as the coating, but free
from any coating, then applying heat to the two plates, and finally uniting by
pressure, substantially as described.
Dotod this fith day of Auril 1897.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.