Improvements in the Treatment of Iron and Steel, and in the Production of Alloys.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd Jan., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 30th Sept., 1896-Accepted, 24th Dec., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Treatment of Iron and Steel, and in the
Production of Alloys.
I EMILE PLACET of 95 Boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris in the Republic of France,
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to produce chromated iron or steel in a more simple
and economical manner than heretofore, by introducing directly into soft iron or
steel, when in a state of fnsion, the desired proportion of pure chromium.
I may also obtain, in the same manner, hard chromated steel for tools, etc.
By way of example, I will state a mode of effecting my purpose.
On bars or tubes of iron or steel is deposited, by electrolysis, a layer of chromium.
Then I slit them or forge them, or I may roll or draw them, thus producing various
articles plated with pure chromium.
Or I may subject the bars or tubes to the process of cementation, by which the
surface is made excessively hard.
Or I may take tools and other articles made of soft steel or iron, cover them with
a layer of chromium, and then subject them to cementation.
After cementation for a sufficiently long period, the pieces will be found to be
transformed into chromated steel through their whole thickness.
Or I may deposit on the tools successive layers of iron and chromium, which I then
submit to cementation.
Or 1 may deposit on bronzes and other articles, successive layers of chromium and
iron, and submit to cementation.
I may also cast these bronzes covered with chromium, and I obtain new alloys of
great value.
I may cast articles in iron and steel, and coat them with pure chromium, and
then decarbonize them by heating them in a close vessel containing peroxide of iron
or other oxygen-yielding powder or material.
Dated this 2nd day of January 1896.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements in the Treatment of Iron and Steel, and in the
Production of Alloys.
I, EMILE PLACET of 95 Boulevard Beaumarchais, Paris, in the Republic of
France, Chemist, 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 :-
Up to the present time it has not been possible to make soft chromated steel,
and, still less, soft chromated iron, because the chromium, as at present obtained

page_text: at elevated temperatures, is not pure metallic chromium, but only a carburet of
chromium.
The carbon contained in the chromium carburet cannot be eliminated, and it is
present in such large quantity, that it has only been possible until now to obtain
hard chromated steel.
The chromium which has been obtained by electrolysis, which is absolutely pure
chromium, and consequently free from carbon, enables me not only to manufacture
soft chromated steel, but also soft chromated iron.
These new compounds or alloys are obtained by introducing directly into the soft
iron or steel, whilst in a state of fusion, pure chromium in suitable proportions,
according to the quality of the metal which it is desired to obtain.
I obtain also, in the same manner, hard chromated steel for tools, similar to
those now manufactured, but I obtain this steel much more simply and economically
than is at present the case, as it is sufficient to introduce the pure chromium into
the steel more or less carburated, whilst in a state of fusion, in quantities precise
and carefully calculated to produce exactly the quality of steel that I may desire
to obtain.
The following, for example, is a method of operating which I often employ.
Upon bars or tubes of iron or steel, I deposit by an electrolytic process of
chromatisation, preferably by the process or processes described in the Specification
of English Patent No. 19344 of 1890,-layers of chromium more or less thick,
according to the quantity of chromium I wish to introduce into the metal or alloy
I desire to make.
Having chromatised these bars or tubes, I then split them open, and I thus
obtain chroniated iron or steel.
I sometimes hammer them, or I may roll them, or draw them, and I thus obtain
plates or tubes plated with pure chromium, from which I produce objects of all
kinds, which present upon their surface the hardness and durability of pure
chromium.
I sometimes subject these bars or tubes of soft iron or steel, previously chromated,
to cementation, and I obtain, in this case, products the surface of which is thus
transformed into excessive hard chromated steel, their interior preserving the
tenacity and other qualities possessed by the primary metal employed.
From these products, coated on their surface with a layer of hard chromated steel,
I manufacture tools and other instruments which require tenacity throughout their
whole body, and great surface hardness, such, for example, as burins, cutting
instruments, etc.
Again, I may take tools already manufactured in iron or soft steel, or even
cast burins stamps, picks, hammers, etc.
I may take valves & slides, excentrics, trunnions, or journals, and other parts of
machinery which are subjected to a great amount of friction, and cover them
electrolytically with a layer of chromium, & I then subject them to cementation, and
I thus obtain tools and parts of machinery with very hard surfaces, which offer a
resistance to shock and friction unknown up to the present day.
When the cementation has been continued a sufficiently long time, the pieces will
be found to be transformed into chromated steel throughout their entire thickness.
Sometimes I deposit, by electrolysis, upon the tools or parts of machinery, successive
and superposed layers of chromium and iron, and then I submit the article, thus
coated with a greater or less number of layers of chromium and iron, to cementation.
Sometimes, also, I deposit these successive layers, more or less thick, of chromium
and iron, upon objects or parts of machinery in copper, bronze, brass, German
silver, etc., and after cementation, these objects will be found to be coated with a sort
of sheathing of chromated steel, excessively hard and resistant.
If I melt this copper, bronze, brass, German silver, etc., thus coated with the
chromated steel, I obtain new alloys considerably improved by the presence of the
chromium and iron.
I may also coat articles cast in iron or steel with a layer of pure chromium by
electrolysis, and I subsequently decarburate.

page_text: For this purpose, I heat the articles in a closed vessel, after having surrounded them
with peroxide of iron in powder, or peroxide of manganese, or any other substance
containing large quantities of oxygen.
In this case, the oxygen of the peroxide burns little by little the carbon contained
in the heated articles, and they will be found to be transformed into soft chromated
steel, and even into perfectly malleable soft chromated iron.
The chromated iron, and the different chromated steels, obtained as above described,
may be employed according to the amount of carbon and of chromium they contain,
for the manufacture of tools and all parts of machinery which have to resist
shocks, tension friction, atmospheric changes, high temperatures, etc.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
The manufacture of chromated steels, consisting in depositing chromium on bars.
or tubes of iron or steel, by means of electrolysis, which bars or tubes, after the
chromating process, are either melted, hammered, rolled, drawn, or subjected to.
cementation, substantially as and for the purposes, above described.
n
L 1000
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.