Abstract
THE January issue of the Transactions of the Institute of Marine Engineers contains, as usual, a selection of important articles from the technical press, and a report of a paper on “Nickel and Nickel Alloys in Marine Engineering”, read to the Institute by Mr. J. McNeil on Dec. 8. Of all the many uses to which nickel has been put aboard ship, none has proved more valuable than when alloyed with copper for condenser tubes. For a very long period, the deterioration of brass condenser tubes, with its accompanying trouble through leakage of sea water, has been a very serious problem, especially in ships fitted with water-tube boilers, but it appears to have been solved at last by the use of an alloy of 70 per cent copper and 30 percent nickel for the tubes. Alloyed with both ferrous or non-ferrous metals, nickel is used for steam turbine blades and nozzles, high-pressure steam valves and fittings, propellers, pistons and liners of Diesel engines, reduction gear wheels, and even crankshafts. Recently a process has been evolved in which nickel can be deposited in thick layers and thus worn parts built up. There is remarkable adhesion between steel and deposited nickel, and the resistance to shear of a thick ring of nickel deposited on steel is stated to be practically that of the metal itself.
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Nickel in Marine Engineering. Nature 129, 503 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129503b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129503b0