Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1891 — Aluminum In Iron Foundries. [ARTICLE]

Aluminum In Iron Foundries.

Mr. David Spencer, ic American Machinist, says: I have used aluminum in foundry practice, and find it is a splendid thing to make iron fluid and clean. It seems to bake ail the impurities out of the iroa when tfc is charged in the cupola with the pig iron. Ten pounds of Ctwles’ ferroaluminum to 2,000 pounds of pig iron will produce good, sound castings, free from blow holes. It is as good in the use of crucible steel as in iron (its effects). It produces a sharp, solid casting, and makes a uniform grain. It takes away the tendency to chill in cast iron. In steel it reduces the shrinkage, and increases the welding properties in both wrought iron and steel. I recommend it to persons making tool castings, such as face plates, and in fact all kinds of work that has to be planed, milled, or turned. There is one thing that I like in its use, and that is, it does not weaken the iron or take the strength from it, but rather adds to it. We are having good success with it in sewing machine castings. I believe in progress in foundry practice, and am always willing to give such things a trial, if I find that they are a benefit. I want other foundrymen to know it. I believe we are making rapid progress in American foundry practice, and the foundryman that is satisfied to run his foundry in the same old-fashioned way his grandfather did, is going to get left. And the younger and more progressive men will come to the front.