REPORT FOR A N A L Y T I C A L
CHEMISTS
The Analytical Chemist in the Automotive Industry TPHE
CONTRIBUTION
of
analytical
-*- chemistry to the growth of American industry has had a twow a y influence. Changes in a n a l y t i cal practice common to a variety of industries in recent years reflect changing objectives and m a y indicate the direction of future effort. Historically, the analytical chemist had a significant p a r t in the establishment and evolution of m a n y of today's major industries— chemical and nonchemical alike. His work enabled manufacturers to predict the economics of production, establish plant design criteria, and produce materials of known, dependable composition. I n d u s t r y ' s demand for greater control of composition, t h e processing of increasingly complex substances, and the need for faster production, exert in t u r n a growing influence on analytical chemistry and its relation to other disciplines. Ferrous Metals Industry The a n a l y s t in the early iron and steel industry was primarily an operating man. Lacking s t a n d a r d analytical procedures for the less common alloy constituents, he had to have a first-hand knowledge of process metallurgy to develop his own procedures. M u c h of the experimental work t h a t established basic facts a b o u t r a w materials, stack gas composition, and combustion efficiency was accomplished by analytical chemists. Such information helped determine the design of later steelmaking facilities. Another function cf the steel plant a n a l y s t was to consult with customers about application problems. T h e variety of steels produced was small. H e a t t r e a t m e n t remained something of an art. T h e capabilities of steel were not widely
investigated until World W a r I gave impetus to the search for highperformance alloys. T h e largescale production of armor plate and the need for h e a v y - d u t y military vehicles demanded steels with new strength and toughness. N e w kinds of steel appeared, and production rose to meet the needs of war. T h e effect on analytical chemists was a growing specialization. Cont a c t was lost with the end uses of steels produced for military application. T h e application metallurgist appeared, t a k i n g over this suddenly expanded function of the prewar analyst. Analytical procedures were largely gravimetric and volumetric, with an occasional comparison of color intensities. Though determination of carbon by combustion was practiced, color carbon determinations were still used in m a n y laboratories. As both the number of alloys and production rates increased, analytical chemists spent more and more time devising new procedures and shortening the time required for established techniques. T h e y spent less time on process metallurgy problems. Between the World W a r s , the variety of steels continued to increase, due in large p a r t to the dem a n d s of the automotive industry. T h e electric arc furnace replaced the crucible process, and the Bessemer process declined in importance. T h e vacuum fusion method of analyzing steel for gases was introduced from G e r m a n y . T h e newly developed photoelectric spectrophotometer was used to determine nitrogen by measuring the intensity of the ammonia-Nessler complex formed from the nitrogen distilled from steel. T h e use of anhydrous reagents—solutions of bromine or
iodine in an aliphatic ester—showed for the first time t h a t aluminum nitride is formed during deoxidation of steel with aluminum when deep-drawing steels are made. These new methods demonstrated t h a t h e a t t r e a t m e n t and normal p l a n t processing operations change t h e a m o u n t of nitrides recoverable from steel and change the physical properties of the metal in a related manner. Meanwhile, a greater understanding of fundamental steelmaking deoxidation reactions was gained from studies sponsored jointly by the industry and the U. S. B u r e a u of Mines. World W a r I I accelerated the trend toward specialization among analysts. Parallel advances in physics and electronics provided them with such techniques as emission spectroscopy for quantitative analysis of the complex alloys required in a fully mechanized war. The emission spectrograph was followed by the direct-reading spectrometer, the quantometer, the autrometer, and a series of semiautomatic instruments. Research emphasis among analytical chemists in the industry seems to have shifted from the chemical problems of steelmaking toward improvement of performance and reliability of their instruments. T h e analyst must now be familiar with the physics and electronics behind his new equipment, and he shares much of his research effort with physical metallurgists and workers in other fields. A number of purely analytical problems remain to be solved, however. Such innovations as basic oxygen processes, vacuum degassing, v a c u u m melting, and blast furnace fuel injection have altered the steelmaking process itself. Continuous steelmaking is on the VOL. 35, NO. 7, JUNE 1 963
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ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA SPRINGFIELD, NEW JERSEY BIRMINGHAM'4, ALABAMA DALLAS 35, TEXAS DETROIT 4, MICHIGAN
SARGENT SCIENTIFIC LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS · APPARATUS « CHEMICALS
Ë, H, SARGENT ί CO., «4? W, FOSTER, CHICAGO 30, (U., ' H Patent No. 2,93
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