THE POTENTIAL OF CASTINGS IN FUTURE ARMY VEHICLES.
Abstract:
It appears that greater utilization of castings and powder metallurgy products by the Army is dependent upon a number of factors, some of which are general in nature, and some of which are peculiar to certain alloys. In general, the casting industry must take advantage of new techniques as they are developed, and must utilize production quality control in order to produce sound castings with maximum strength-weight ratios. Attempts should be made to cast to closer and closer dimension and weight tolerances in order to maximize this inherent process advantage. In ferrous castings, close control of the composition, particularly phosphorus, sulphur, nitrogen, oxygen, etc., will be prerequisite to the production of sound, high-strength castings, and close control of all other casting details will be necessary. For titanium and perhaps for ferrous and other nonferrous alloys as well vacuum melting and vacuum pouring is essential now, and will become commonplace if sound high-strength castings are to be produced in quantity. The inspection problems associated with castings are yet to be solved as far as satisfactory production inspection is concerned. However, much is being accomplished in this area, and it is anticipated that 5 - 10 years hence satisfactory nondestructive techniques will exist. Author