John A. Hardy by T-1 Dra W
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July 3, 1962 J. A. HARDY 3,042,566 CHEMICAL, MILLING Filed Sept. 22, 1958 5 Sheets-Sheet o se r M i. { A g V V Ye g S S. es e es K & wish:w div s Niw SgS 8 INVENTOR. JohnBY A. Hardy Tao as W. Secrest July 3, 1962 J. A. HAROY 3,042,566 CHEMICAL, MILLING Tao was u, secrest July 3, 1962 J. A. HARDY 3,042,566 CHEMICAL, MILLING Filed Sept. 22, 1958 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 n es g We NW ex +70 cs ruru sn't alw' NW INVENTOR. John A. Hardy BY T-1 dra W. Secrest July 3, 1962 J. A. HARDY 3,042,566 CHEMICAL MILLING 5. Sheets-Sheet 4 is as cs ww.sw 3 val e) NA "w ad S. d S. S. S. C su. G W W Ly W VOL. INVENTOR. Udhy A. Hardy BY T-1 d Y11 as W. Secrest July 3, 1962 J. A. HAROY 3,042,566 CHEMICAL, MILLING Filed Sept. 22, 1958 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 o F. G. 8 6 O 50 AO 3. O o 54.5% ros 2.O 56.85 a POs & 58.35 lo POs is 5935 to Os g) 6o.55 a Pos O - .5 2.0 2S 3.0 ass 4.d 4.5 5.O TO AL E LAPSED T ME (hrs) F G.O 0. KEY: e-ABE X - BURUNDU/W e-ABLE - 96 . ALO --G 79.8-P; (550°F) 0.60 P-Po N PER CENT CONCENTRATED S- so IN PER CENT PHosp-oric ACfD AND PHOSPHoRus CONCENTRATED H PO AND PENiOx DE 0.50 FUMMG SULFURIC ACDS 0.4 O tel-P, (20 F) 0. 3. O 81.8-P, (120°F) 88.7-P, (720°F) INVENTOR. O 2O 50 40 50 6O FO 8O 9Cs PHOSPHORUS PENToxIDE (PER CENT BY WEIGHT John A. Ha rdy T. D. Yas w,Secres Z. 3,042,566 United States Paten Office Patented Jilly 3, 1962 2 usually results a relatively rough surface. Because of ex 3,042,566 cessive cost the tolerance, in a recessed area, is not a close (CHEMCAS, MENG John A. Hardy, Seattle, Wash., assignor to Egeing Air one but must be a rather large one such as in the hun plane Company, Seattle, Wasia, a corporation of Hei diedths of an inch. Also, on some of the newer metals aware it is impractical, because of cost due to equipment and Filed Sept. 22, 1958, Ser. No. 762,561 to the time of milling involved, to mechanically mill the 8 Caiias, (CE. 156-8) Surfaces as the metal is extremely tough and resistant to mechanical cutting and/or rapid abrasion. For example, This discovery relates to the chemical milling of metal, only casting and rough grinding can be employed with ceramics and cermets and, more particularly, to the chem 10 certain metals. ical milling of the ceramic alumina in an acid medium. The prior art is not concerned with the chemical milling Prior to specifically discussing chemical milling I wish of cermets and ceramics such as alumina, aluminum oxide, to point out the manner in which it distinguishes from blit is more concerned with the polishing of such a ceramic. pickling, brightening, decorative design and surface in For example, because alumina is such a hard material crease. Chemical milling may be considered to be con 15 One of the techniques of polishing employs diamond dust trolled corrosion or controlled metal removal to form or diamond powder. As is well-known diamond is the sculptured metal configurations. In chemical milling a hardest material and therefore can be used for polishing relatively large percentage of the metal may be rapidly a softer material such as alumina. However, the polish removed so as to leave a minor amount of the original 20 ing of alumina with diamond powder leaves the article metal in a new configuration. As contrasted with this covered with minute scratches which act or function as is pickling or scale removal whereby as much as possible stress raisers so as to decrease the ultimate strength of of the oxide and other coating of the metal are removed alumina. The patents to Espig et al., Numbers 1,806,588 but as small amount of the metal as possible is removed. and 1,806,589, issuing date of May 26, 1931, teach of the In other words in pickling only the surface coating of the 25 polishing of alumina, in the form of sapphire, ruby and metal is removed. In brightening or surface polishing a synthetic corundum, by borax and sodium carbonate at a minimum amount of the metal is removed to form a re temperature of about 750-800° C. Graham, Patent flective surface as the scale has been previously removed. Number 2,510,219, issuing date of June 6, 1950, teaches idecorative designs are of a shallow depth with approxi of the polishing of alumina with a mixture of sodium mately five mils of surface removed by chemical action. 30 carbonate and borax at a high temperature. More partic In decorative design part of the surface is masked and the ularly, Graham teaches of the glossing of the surface of a design is inscribed through the masked coating. Next, a corundum article by immersing it in a mixture consisting chemical solution is applied to the masked material and essentially of between one and six parts by weight of so allowed to react with the metal to form the design. An 35 dium carbonate to one part by weight of an alkali borate example of decorative design is siiverWare. In Surface Such as sodium or potassium tetraborate at a temperature increase the object is to form a roughened surface. In in the range of 1480-1740 F. By such treatment it is order to specifically increase the surface area the same is possible to produce a surface on alumina which is sub purposely pitted by chemical action. This is done to stantially smooth and is free of a wavy or undulating make the surface rough enough for bonding purposes such 40 Surface. as a metal to metal bond, a base for paint and the manu To repeat, the prior art did not deal with chemical mill facture of condenser plates to name a few of the uses. ing; it dealt with the polishing of alumina. As disclosed The mechanical milling of metal is well-known and ex in the patent to Graham, his process is for the polishing of tensively used throughout the metal working industry. 45 alumina at a high temperature. This temperature is diffi Even though mechanical milling is extensively used it in cult to maintain and in itself is expensive to maintain be herently has certain limitations. One of these limitations cause of the high heat loss due to the driving potential. is the expensive capital investment for milling machines. With this in mind I have invented a process for milling Such a machine, capable of making large, complicated alumina at a relatively rapid rate of approximately five configurations, may cost in the hundreds of thousands of 50 tenths (0.5 mil) milper minute at a relatively low temper dollars. In addition to the capital investment it is nec ature of approximately 550-750 F. With such a rapid essary to have skilled workmen operating these machines milling rate it is possible to economically eat away the alu in order to do a creditable job on the milling of metal. mina. Also, at the low milling temperatures it is possible Also, because of cost and man-hour requirements this to economically heat or maintain the liquid milling solu type of milling is limited to certain configurations, namely, tion because of the lower driving potential. those configurations which are of a more simple or open To further illustrate some of the advantages of chemi design. However, by the skillful use of welding it is pos cal milling it is possible to achieve the same output by sible to build these limited configurations into an intricate chemical milling with a lower capital investment than design. Because of the nature of the weld and the in 60 for an equal output with mechanical milling. Also, in herent weakness therein it is not always advisable to build chemical milling the application of masking material to these limited basic configurations into an intricate design the part to be formed requires semi-skilled labor as con as the weld might rupture or the added weight become trasted with the requirement of skilled labor for mechani excessive. Furthermore, with mechanical milling there cal milling. And, more intricate configurations can be 3,042,566 3 4. formed more rapidly by chemical milling as the metal to understood by reference to the following detailed descrip be milled can be immersed in the reactant solution so that tion of the invention and the accompanying claims. all parts of the metal can be acted upon simultaneously. In the drawings: - In a specific illustration as applied to the manufacture of FIGURE 1 is a plot of the milling rate versus the airplanes it is possible to reduce the weight of certain 5 percentage of phosphorus pentoxide in the milling solu members of the airplane, as an example, stainless steel tion. sheet stock may come in a thickness of 0.093 inch; how FIG. 2 is a plot of the milling rate versus the percentage ever, from a design standpoint a thickness of 0.086 inch of phosphorus pentoxide in the milling solution. may be adequate.