An Investigation of Some Silver Alloy Steels

The object of this research project was to develop an alloy steel containing an appreciable amount of silver and possessing desirable properties. Investigation revealed that the solubility of silver alone in steel was exceedingly small, less than 0.02 per cent. It was necessary, therefore, to develop some means of increasing the solubility of silver in steel. By alloying silver with copper before adding to steel, it was found that 0.3 per cent silver could be alloyed with the steel. An investigation was conducted on some of the properties of the silver copper steels. The results indicate that additions of silver with copper have little effect on the thermal critical temperatures, on some of the mechanical properties, on the corrosion resistance, on the austenitic grain size, and on the microstructure of 0.15 per cent and 0.35 per cent carbon steels.