EXAMINING METALS BY X-RAYS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16462, 14 June 1919, Page 3

EXAMINING METALS BY X-RAYS.

The rapid development of electric welding in Great Britain, fostered by the Admiralty for ship construction and other purposes, has led to some highly important improvements in this useful means of forming a close union between plates and other sections of iron or steel. The British experts who carried out successful work of a novel kind have made excellent use of “fluxcovered” metal electrodes. In this system the metal electrodes between which the arc for melting purposes is struck are covered with certain materials which flow under the heat of the arc and protect the metal from oxidation during the process. In welding steels alloyed with special substances, a flux can be used containing the alloys, thus supplying them to the weld as it is being made. By this means the weld is made uniform in composition with the remainder of the metal. Special attention is also being given by British engineers to the testing of weldfs by 1 ‘ radiometajl ography. ’ ’ The weld is examined under the X-rays much as a portion of the human body might be, and internal imperfections are thereby revealed although they may be covered by a solid close-grained surface. Many British men of science are devoting themselves to research in this direction, which is calculated to be of great practical value to all users of metals. It may be recalled that Great Britain led the way in the microscopic study of the structure of metals—a study which laid the foundations of modern scientific metallurgy.