METALLURGY AND WHEELS - The Story of Men, Metals and Motors
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Over four-fifths of the weight of the automobile is iron and steel. This means that the average passenger car contains about a ton and a half of iron parts. The complete car costs the owner only about 50 cents a pound for the low-priced cars and about 75 cents for the high-priced ones. A pound of sirloin steak or a pound of butter costs more than a pound of most automobiles. To accomplish this result has taken thousands of men in many kinds of work, years of patient effort. Cooperation between trained technical men and skilled workmen have produced the outstanding mechanical device of the present time: the automobile….”
(1944 - Staff GENERAL MOTORS)
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METALLURGY AND WHEELS - The Story of Men, Metals and Motors - General Motors Corporation
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THE METALLURGIST AND THE AUTOMOBILE
Iron and steel have made the automobile possible. Without a widely available material capable of being easily formed and treated to obtain the special properties necessary, the automobile would still be only a curiosity.
Over four-fifths of the weight of the automobile is iron and steel. This means that the average passenger car contains about a ton and a half of iron parts. The complete car costs the owner only about 50 cents a pound for the low-priced cars and about 75 cents for the high-priced ones. A pound of sirloin steak or a pound of butter costs more than a pound of most automobiles. To accomplish this result has taken thousands of men in many kinds of work, years of patient effort. Cooperation between trained technical men and skilled workmen have produced the outstanding mechanical device of the present time— the automobile.
Of the technical men, metallurgists have contributed some of the most important improvements to make the automobile successful. To the casual observer, these improvements are not always apparent. Many new metallurgical developments are hidden inside the engine, the transmission or the rear axle housing and are never seen except by the mechanic. Others are of such a nature that they are not readily apparent to the naked eye. To most of us one piece of iron or steel looks like another. To the metallurgist, each type of steel has its own particular use and is just as different to him as day is from night to us.
In making the automobile there are always two main considerations. One, is how shall it be made, and another is of what shall it be made. To the engineer, these are designated as problems of design and problems of materials. These two considerations are closely tied together and a knowledge of both is necessary to successfully produce the automobile. In other words, the way an automobile is made depends, to a large extent, upon the materials which are available. Improvements in mechanical design have often even had to await developments in materials.
The metallurgist has never been long in producing materials required by the engineer. Special alloys of steel have been developed to take care of many of the unusually hard requirements of the automobile and its engine. Valve materials operate for thousands of miles at red heat. Spring materials withstand mil-Lions of bumps in the road without breaking. Gear materials do not fail during the life of the car under the heavy loads which they transmit. Not the least among the metallurgist's contributions is the high speed tool steel which is used to machine the various parts of the car and maintain accuracies measured in less than thousandths of an inch. Special tool steels have made large scale production of the automobile possible.
The future contributions of the automotive metallurgist will be just as important as those of the past. Even though the advancements in the past twenty-five years have been rapid, there still remain many things which can be done. A well-known metallurgist has said, Metallurgy is one of the oldest of the arts and one of the newest of the sciences.
Day after day thousands of research metallurgists painstakingly carry on