STEEL RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT LABORATORY

For nearly three decades, Touchstone Research Laboratory is involved in steel research and steel product development.

In 1994, Touchstone absorbed, into its laboratory, most of the facilities from the research facility of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, the 7^th largest US steel producer at the time.

At the time Touchstone started its steel development facilities, there were several steel companies in the US such as National Steel, US Steel, Weirton Steel and Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel with their own, excellent R&D centers with world class research facilities and a very large number (perhaps thousands) of researchers. As the time went by, the R&D centers of several companies in the US were shut down.

It has been a goal of this laboratory to fill the void left by the loss of the many US steel R&D facilities.

Some of the R&D tasks performed by Touchstone Research Laboratory include development of steel products, failure analysis, warranty evaluations and quality controlling testing for the steel industry.

In view of the availability of wide ranging facilities and experts within its laboratory, Touchstone is uniquely positioned to take up R&D projects of interest to steel producers and users of steel. Standard research facilities available at Touchstone to perform various R&D tasks of interest to steel industry are as follows:

• Chemistry laboratory equipped with an Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) for chemical analysis of steel

• Hot and cold rolling mills equipped with coilers and a slitter

• Light microscope for optical metallography,

• Three Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEM) with thin window energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), hot stage, and the ability to do small-scale testing inside the SEM during observation.

• The metallographic laboratory has examined virtually every kind of steel that exists. The microstructural analysis laboratory is equipped with numerous metallographs with a wide range of imaging such as bright field, dark field, Nomarski illumination, oblique illumination and image analysis.

• Induction Furnace for melting of steel: With minor modifications, Touchstone will be able to melt up to 120 pounds of molten steel. Currently, Touchstone is melting non-ferrous metals and the steel casting is performed by a subcontractor, with a goal to bring this capability in-house

• Hot-microhardness tester which can measure the hardness of materials up to 1650°C.

• Numerous mechanical testing frames to perform a wide range of mechanical tests including tension, compression, fatigue, fracture toughness, cryogenic and elevated temperature; hardness testers; microhardness tester; hot hardness tester, Charpy and Izod testers for impact toughness, and Olsen cup tester for evaluating formability of sheet metal and,

• Corrosion test facilities (salt fog ASTM Designation: B 117, SWAAT, CASS and others).

• Several heat treatment furnaces, including many controlled atmosphere furnaces. For one customer, Touchstone designed and built a capability to heat steel in a controlled manner that replicated their on-line heat treatment furnaces.

• A complete machine shop with manual and CNC equipment from a small manual bench lathe up to a large 15’x10’x6’ 5 axis CNC router as well as welding including TIG and MIG.

Over the years, Touchstone has developed stainless steel cut nails, improved galvanized steel culvert, steel building materials and several other products. Quality control tests are routinely performed on steel products. These tests include mechanical testing, and evaluations of organic and inorganic coatings on steel panels by exposing them to salt fog.

System solutions seems to be the future of steel integration into products. Steel combined with polymers, advanced ceramics coatings, or composites. Something that sets Touchstone apart from most other R&D laboratory facilities is that it has a breadth of expertise not only in metallurgy but also in polymers, ceramics and composites.

Touchstone’s design and analysis capabilities include SolidWorks, MasterCam, and Ansys.

Whatever your needs, from the development of new alloys, to experimental rolling, to testing to failure analysis, call or visit Touchstone Research Laboratory.

Please give us a call for a no-cost assessment of your project needs and how we can help you.

Contact: info@trl.com or tel 304-547-5800 for a PROMPT response