To a certain extent steels containing 3 or 4 per cent of the metal molybdenum, and 1 or 1½ per cent of carbon are used in the construction of permanent magnets. It is said that molybdenum is used in some modern guns, which longer resist the corrosive effect of the powder-gases because of it. A certain amount goes into the high-speed steels where it replaces part or all of the tungsten. Here, however, it has been a disappointment and the amount so used seems to be decreasing rather than increasing.
Tungsten Steels
Steels with about ½ per cent of each of carbon and tungsten are occasionally used for manufacture of springs, and with greater amounts, e.g., ¾ per cent of carbon and 5 or 7 per cent of tungsten, for permanent magnets for which they are claimed to be the best material known. The use of tungsten in the tool steels (other than the high-speed steels) is considerable.
Nickel Steel
Nickel steel is much used on account of its high strength. The most usual alloy, perhaps, is the one which contains about 3½ per cent of nickel. This is in addition to the carbon which may vary between .15 per cent and ½ per cent. This 3½ per cent of nickel adds several thousand pounds per square inch in strength to the steel, and when tempered, both the strength and toughness are greatly improved.
Nickel steels of these compositions can readily be forged and rolled. They are used for drop forgings, machine parts, engine and automobile parts, in seamless tubes and for bridge members of great span.
Nickel will not rust so it does not surprise one that with 22 per cent or more of nickel the steel is almost immune from ordinary corrosion. Steels containing from 25 to 46 per cent nickel are variously used for resistance wire, for valve stems, valves for motors, etc. The 36 per cent nickel steel is the alloy, “Invar,” which has such slight expansion and contraction with heat and cold that it is used for clock pendulums, watch parts and for parts of measuring instruments.
Forty-six per cent nickel steel is called “Platinite.” It has practically the same rates of expansion and contraction with heat and cold as glass and for this reason it finds extensive use in incandescent electric lamps. Wires of the alloy are fused into the glass bases and connect with the filaments in place of the expensive platinum which formerly was used.
As remarked above, the 13 per cent to 15 per cent nickel-iron alloys soften with quenching but not with annealing. The 15 per cent nickel steel has the highest strength of the nickel-iron-carbon series. Though nickel and iron are each strongly magnetic, alloys of the two which contain 24 per cent or more of nickel are not magnetic.