ABRASIVES
 Touchstone has earned numerous awards as an industrial problem-solver,
new product developer, and applied research laboratory for hundreds
of manufacturers in a wide range of business sectors. Our unique
capability as an industrial problem-solver is based on the diversity
of our highly experienced technical staff, supported by over $10
million worth of in-house laboratory equipment and testing facilities.
The following examples illustrate some of our contributions to this
business sector:
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A manufacturer of cast steel shot asked Touchstone to examine
some of its product and determine the reason for excessive cracking.
Chemical analysis was performed and all values met specification.
Rockwell hardness values of 59C were also within specification.
Metallographic cross-sections revealed that all of the cracking
was occurring in long martensitic plates in the microstructure.
Apparently, the metal was freezing in two stages. First, long
martensite plates were formed, and when the remaining material
transformed, it put high residual tensile stresses on the long
plates of martensite - causing the unacceptable cracking.
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Touchstone assisted a manufacturer in developing a process
for the recovery of the alloy-rich metal mixed with their grinding
swarf. This reduced the waste output of the manufacturer while
allowing re-use of alloy bearing metal that was otherwise sold
to a smelting operation.
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A cut nail manufacturer reported excessive knife wear on nail
cutting machines used in their nail manufacturing process. Touchstone
performed a thorough metallographic examination of the samples
and determined that a significant amount of mill scale still remained
on the sheet material "after shotblast cleaning". The
presence of unremoved mill scale resulted in excessive knife wear
because of its hardness. Changes in the shotblast procedure were
suggested to increase the efficiency in the scale removal process.
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Evaluation of steel specimens: Portions of both steel specimens
and an amount of the steel shot material were mounted in epoxy,
abraded, polished and etched to allow a comparison of the microstructure
of several of the inclusions to the steel shot. Touchstone concluded
that the inclusions consisted of steel shot particles, which have
been rolled into the surface during the cold rolling process.
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In related work, Engine oil samples were provided for evaluation
that contained debris from a recent rebuild. Using EDS analysis
of individual debris particles it was possible to demonstrate
that most of the foreign material originated in alumina abrasives
used in the rebuild.
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Catastrophic failure of a spline shaft on an electric motor
was traced to abrasive wear by fretting of the splines. Once wear
had become great enough to allow free play the splines began to
break away under starting loads. The source of the failure was
assigned to improper fit during original manufacture of the parts.
The above examples are only a sample of our work in this area.
We would be pleased to provide any additional information you may
require. We also invite you to review examples on our website of
work that we have performed in support of other business sectors.
Please contact one of our Project Managers to discuss your manufacturing
problem. We would welcome an opportunity to add you to our rapidly
growing list of satisfied customers.
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