AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Notes from Sheffield.

12th May 1910, Page 3
12th May 1910
Page 3
Page 3, 12th May 1910 — Notes from Sheffield.
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

By a Local Correspondent.

In my notes some weeks ago, I stated that local manufacturers of motor steel were well satisfied with the orders on their books; there are signs, however, that motor engineers have largely placed their requirements for the time being, and these are providing steady work for, local forges. Reports to hand from the Coventry district are rewarded as very favourable, and they inchoate that the various motor works concerned are likely to continue well employed.

Chrome-Vanadium Steel.

Vanadium has lately come to loom so largely in the Sheffield steel trade that some reference to its commercial application in relation to motor-vehicle building may not be out of place. It is, of course, one of the latest alloys in the manufacture of high-class steel, and its success in the region of tool steel, where it has, admittedly, enabled manufacturers to go one better than they could with tungsten steel, and has brought into the market what is commonly known as the " new high-speed steel" (concerning which there was, by the way, a great controversy in the local steel trade last year), has caused attention to be devoted to it for motor steel. Just as it was found that the admixture of a certain amount of vanadium had a wonderful effect in increasing the endurance of cutting steels which are run at a great rate, so it was found that its use enabled steel to sustain severe pressure or stress.

Enquiries amongst Sheffield steel manufacturers show that some of the biggest firms are supplying, against merchants' requirements, this class of steel in an indirect way. Chrome-vanadium steel is now being used, more than experimentally I am informed, by such firms in the motor trade as numbers, Ltd., and the Albion Motor Car Co., Ltd., for special parts, particularly crankshafts, gears, propeller-shafts, and driving axles. For big types of shafts, it has been found very serviceable. Since live axles for motor vehicles came into such vogue, complaints of breakage were very numerous, but I learn that where chrome-vanadium is used there has never been a complaint of breakage.

The Vanadium Steel Co., Ltd., of Sheffield, has had on its books some very long orders for special parts, and the management are confident that, if motor engineers were better acquainted with vanadium, they would prefer it for many purposes.

No one description of steel, however, can be said to hold the field as yet. Motor engineers have their own individual preferences, and, as is only to be expected, there is a good deal of experimenting going on with vanadium and other steels both by steel manufacturers and motor builders, but, if all one hears be true, chromevanadium steel bears shock and vibration unusually well, and it resists the effects of sudden and abnormally-heavy torsional stresses with great success.

Carbon Steel.

While so much attention is undoubtedly being given to more-costly steels—and some of the prices for these are still in the stage that one may call fancy, there is a large trade being done in ordinary carbon case-hardening steel, and manufacturers of such steel are not at all alarmed that the trade will slip away from them; they have the pull in the matter of price, over the high-grade alloy steels, and that, in these days of keen competition, is a big advantage.

Tags

Locations: Coventry, Sheffield

comments powered by Disqus