It is important to eliminate blowholes or pinholes in iron and steel, the mechanism of growth of them has not been yet sufficiently studied. As a first step, to study this mechanism, it is necessary to analyze the gases existing in blowholes or pinholes. For this purpose, vacuum cutting apparatus was designed and set up instead of drilling the sample in water or oil.
Vacuum cutting apparatus is a lathe which works in high vacuum, and is composed of three parts, that is, high vacuum part. low vacuum part, and atmospheric part. During the cutting with this apparatus, there are two kinds of gases extracted, one is discharged from blowholes or pinholes, the other is evolved from chips because of their high temperature: to prevent the mixing, the apparatus is designed so that its cutting velocity to be as slow as possible. Furthermore, to eliminate gases which evaporate from oil in vacuum, low pressure oil is used. The apparatus is then tested as follows.
(1) Using this vacuum rotary apparatus, high vacuum (10
-5mmHg) can be attained during operation.
(2) Cutting can be done automatically with a turning tool or cutter
(3) Gases discharged during the cutting can be got together by a mercury diffusion pump and a jet mercury pump, then analyzed by an Orsat apparatus.
(4) Gases evolved from the apparatus in vacuum is 0.03-0.04cc in 3hr, and it is neglisible small for analysis.
(5) Cutting temperature is about 60-100°C when measured by a thermocouple of a turning tool and the sample (iron or steel), and temperature of chips is about 100°C when measured by calorimetry of chips.
(6) Gas pressure during the cutting is continuously measured by a pirani gauge, and so the existence of blowhole is immediately and apparently indicated by sudden change on the pirani gauge reading.
Some experimental data observed by this apparatus are as follows.
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