A New Iron Process.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 8, 1 June 1906, Page 199

A New Iron Process.

We understand that a company is m course of formation with a view to the working of a new non process m England. The process is the invention of a German engineer named Bosshardt, and its object is the conversion of scrap wrought iron into malleable cast iron or steel at one operation. It involves the employment of a special patented electric furnace, and the introduction of various compositions and chemical products in to the metallic molten substance during the smelting process. Castings made by this process are said to possess all the qualities of the highest class malleable iron, and having great tensile strength and ductilit\ to form a substitute for various articles and parts of machinery which hitherto have had to be forged at a great cost. By the same process and by one melting alone, it is claimed that the finest tool steel is produced. Castings so made do not require to be annealed, and although they can be made in three to three-and-a-half hours, they are ready for delivery immediately they have cooled down. The above claims for the Bosshardt process are substantiated by the results of tests conducted at Owens College, Manchester, and at the works of Messrs. Kirkcaldy and Son, London, S.E. A considerable number of furnaces are at work on the process in Germany, Holland, and France, while in Hungary the pui chasers include the Austrian Government Railway Department m Budapest. Generally speaking, tensile tests have given results over twenty tons to the inch, ranging between twenty-one and thirty-five tons, depending upon the amount of carbon added to the crucible when the metal is in a molten state. One of the great advantages arising frcm the use of this process is the immediate delivery, instead of waiting seven to twenty-one days, the time required for converting cast-iron articles to malleable iron. Costs, no doubt, vary considerably, but at a Dutch foundry, visited by an expert employed by the gentlemen who are financing the English company, m one case the cost, moulded and cast, was 2}d. per pound, and the selling price ;d , showing 2|-d. per pound profit, as compared with about id. per pound on ordinary methods As the process also renders possible the casting in

steel or wrought iron of articles which would have to be otherwise forged it has several strong claims to recognition, and we understand that the company courts the fullest investigation.