Stellite
|
|
Stellite is a range of cobalt-chromium alloys designed for wear resistance. It may also contain tungsten and a small but important amount of carbon. It is a trademarked name of the Deloro Stellite Company. Stellite alloys display astounding hardness and toughness, and are also usually very resistant to corrosion. Stellite alloys are so hard that they are very difficult to machine, and anything made from them is as a result very expensive. Typically a stellite part will be very precisely cast so that only minimal machining will be necessary. Stellite alloys also tend to have extremely high melting points due to the cobalt and chromium content.
Typical applications include saw teeth, hardfacing (wear-resistant welding), poppet valves and -seats in internal combustion engines and acid resistant applications. The first third of M-60 machine gun barrels (starting from the chamber) are lined with stellite. Modern jet engine turbine blades are usually made of stellite alloys, due to their very high melting points and tremendous strength at very high temperatures. In the early 1980s, experiments were done in the United Kingdom to make artificial hip joints and other bone replacements out of precision-cast stellite alloys.
Talonite is a stellite alloy which has been hot-rolled and hardened in a particular way, to provide a combination of hardness, wear resistance and machinability. Not all stellites respond to this process.pl:Stellit