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Lt-Col A. Tack
04-07-2010, 03:24 PM
Questek awards first production license of ultra-tough alloy

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

QuesTek Innovations LLC has recently awarded a license to Latrobe Specialty Steel Company to produce and sell Ferrium M54. This is the first license awarded to produce commercially and sell this alloy using QuesTek’s compositions, processing expertise and intellectual property. Terms of the multi-year agreement were not disclosed.

Ferrium M54 is a premium-quality steel that offers ultra high strength and toughness, having an ultimate tensile strength of 294 ksi, yield strength of 250 ksi, and fracture toughness of 110 ksi square root inch as typical properties. QuesTek computationally designed and developed M54 to be a cost-effective alternative to alloys such as AerMet 100 (in part by limiting high-cost alloying elements such as cobalt), while meeting or exceeding all key properties.

Applications of this class of alloys can include aircraft landing gear and arresting tailhooks, shock struts, tow bars, drive shafts, actuators, blast containment devices, fasteners, golf club face inserts and other highly-loaded components.

QuesTek received funding and direction from the U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) to computationally design and develop M54, under both an earlier Phase I and a current Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project. NAVAIR also recently awarded QuesTek a Phase I SBIR project to evaluate and test M54 and other materials for arresting tailhook applications.

QuesTek’s design, development and licensing of M54 builds upon its earlier design, development and licensing of Ferrium S53, another commercially-available ultra high strength steel. While M54 has significantly greater yield strength and fracture toughness than S53, the resistance of S53 to general corrosion is far greater than that of M54.

http://www.rdmag.com/News/2010/04/Materials-Metals-Questek-awards-first-production-license-of-ultra-tough-alloy/

Lt-Col A. Tack
04-07-2010, 03:29 PM
For comparison,

A36 plate steel, very common here in the US and used for a lot of general fabrication, has a yield strength of 36 ksi (36 000 psi).

This stuff, Ferrium M54, has a yield strength of 250 ksi (250 000 psi), about 7 times greater.

Yield strength is an important property to consider in the realm of mechanical design.

pmj
04-07-2010, 03:58 PM
Could this be used in rifle-barrels? Or is it already in use?

highdiver_2000
04-07-2010, 09:55 PM
I am not really familiar in the world of materials. What about brittleness? For example carbon steel used for drill bits can cut through almost any thing. But when you drop a drill bit, it shatters

StuRat
04-07-2010, 10:18 PM
Applications of this class of alloys can include aircraft landing gear and arresting tailhooks, shock struts, tow bars, drive shafts, actuators, blast containment devices, fasteners, golf club face inserts and other highly-loaded components.
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orionhawk
04-10-2010, 11:04 AM
I'd be interested in whether you can make a knife out of it...

CouchCommando
04-10-2010, 11:15 AM
Why? It'd be impossible to sharpen properly.

orionhawk
04-10-2010, 11:41 AM
why? I should think diamond or sintered ceramet would be able to cut it.