Pacific Metal Trading Co.

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17/09/2012

Happy Days!! For all the Importers !!

16/09/2012

The Discovery of Stainless Steel :-
'Who was the inventor of stainless steel?’
A confident look passes across your face, maybe the slightest hint of a cheeky grin, victory is in sight my friend! This is the question that makes you a million, wins you that holiday of a lifetime, gives you the title of office genius, or gets you that elusive slice of pie on the Trivial Pursuit board.
You know this one…. don’t you?
‘Harry Brearley!! It’s Harry Brearley!! Isn’t it?’ Well, the answer may not be so clear-cut…

Harry Brearley
Since the dawn of man colonies have raced against each other to uncover new technologies, to be the first to stamp their names on a discovery, and although we’ve evolved over millions of years (most of us, anyway) the urge to be the first remains at the very core of our nature.
This sense of passion and pride can lead some of the more unscrupulous humans to claim others discoveries as their own. Of course many breakthroughs are genuinely made in tandem, or are simultaneously occurring, but unless you can categorically prove that you were the pioneer of these incredible findings then the other party involved will always dispute the fact.
And so we come to stainless steel.
The first point to note is that ‘inventor’ is a very ambiguous term. Is this the first person to think, to document, to patent, or to produce? The second point is that stainless steel wasn’t truly defined until 1911, so are we to cast aside those chromium-iron alloys that don’t quite meet the minimum requirement of 10.5% chromium?
It seems like anyone and everyone has a different claim to being labelled the ‘inventor’ of stainless steel; from Britain, Germany, France, Poland, the U.S.A, and even Sweden.
The cogs were set in motion by Englishmen Stoddard and Farraday circa 1820 and Frenchman Pierre Berthier in 1821. These scientists, among others, noted that iron-chromium alloys were more resistant to attack by certain acids, but tests were only carried out on low chromium content alloys. Attempts to produce higher chromium alloys failed primarily because of scientists not understanding the importance of low carbon content.
In 1872 another pair of Englishmen, Woods and Clark, filed for patent of an acid and weather resistant iron alloy containing 30-35% chromium and 2% tungsten, effectively the first ever patent on what would now be considered a stainless steel. However, the real development came in 1875 when a Frenchman named Brustlein detailed the importance of low carbon content in successfully making stainless steel. Brustlein pointed out that in order to create an alloy with a high percentage of chromium, the carbon content must remain below around 0.15%
Thus ensued two decades of stagnation for the development of stainless steel, and while many scientists attempted to create a low carbon stainless steel, none succeeded.

16/09/2012

16/09/2012

15/09/2012

Pacific Metal Trading Co. - will keep you updated on Stainless Steel, Mild Steel, Carbon Steel - Prices, Products & New Inventions.

15/09/2012

15/09/2012