New Uses For Aluminium

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 165, 15 July 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

New Uses For Aluminium

A L I HOI (ill something approaching a quarter of a nil 11011 tone of a 1 tiii■ iiiiuin is being used every vear there lias prolwibly never been a tm>l ul s<> obstinate to man's handling of it. The (lillii'iilly with which aluminium is soldered is well known, and even to-day. in spile of fortunes which have Keen spent ii|M>n this problem, soldering alnrnininm ie extremely difficult. Hut for the la it "2ft years similar efforts have been made to nickelplate and silver-plate aluminium, and here again it is a long istorv of disappoint rnent on account of the chemical obstinacy of tile metiil. Tlui whole trouble lies in the greediness with which aluminium combines with oxygen: a piece of brightly polished aluminium left in the air will almost instantly become coated with an inlinitely thin laver of aluminium-oxide, and it is this "skin" which not only prevents solder from getting into intimate eontact. with the metal, but has made an\ form of electro-plating impossible. .Vow. however, a process has been invented by which, after a simple chemical treatment, aluminium can be electro-plated with nickel, silver and chromium. This discovery is likely to he of immeasurable importance in the world of engineering, for it makes possible the use of aluminium and aluminium alloy iri parts of highspeed machinery which, without the plating, would last only a rery short t imp.