Chrome and Nickel-Chrome Steels
While “simple” chrome steel is pretty well known as a material for products which require great hardness, such as balls, roller bearings, files, rolls, five-ply safes, stamp shoes, projectiles, etc., and heat-treated chrome-vanadium steels are now extensively used in forged frames and shafts of automobile and other machines, a combination of nickel and chromium gives steels which have been great favorites. With 2 to 3½ per cent of nickel, not over 3 per cent of chromium and ½ per cent of carbon, these steels, when expertly heat-treated, can give “elastic limits” anywhere between 40,000 and 250,000 pounds per square inch, with good freedom from brittleness. They are very largely used for automobile gears, axles, and other parts, for armor plate, for projectiles and for many other purposes.
These alloys are also used for castings.