1950, Rolls Royce inconel finishes?
 

Hello all, I tried this in the military forum and got pointed here.

I have a long shot question. I would be grateful for any help anyone can give.

I am looking for information on what sort of finish options were being used by Rolls in the early '50s for jet engine parts made of inconel. In particular for Derwent mk 9 balance pipes.

The examples I've seen show three different finishes: a machine finish, a sort of bead-blasted satin look as on the examples on the right here, and a very matte almost velvety look as on the left. Although they have a hint of bronze color in the photo, in person they just look a warm grey.

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/9787/bpcompzu2.jpg

Thanks!

Serafino,

Again, as far as I am aware, and am open to correction, Inconel is actually the alloy itself, and the finish is actually a natural metal finish of the alloy, so I would imagine the differences you describe would actually be differences between how the individual parts were finished in a manufacturing sense. Some may have been milled, others shot blasted, others with a cast finish etc..


Hope this helps


Flipflopman

Flipflopman--thanks again. Yes inconel is the metal itself. What got me started on this question is a source I had at a museum who was researching the question and believed that different 'finishes' were called out in different versions of the same part with different part numbers, and that some of these were finishes were "metal coatings". Unfortunately he no longer works there and so our information has dried up.

Since I've never seen such a powdery-looking matte surface result from bead-blasting, I'm searching for information on what the process might have been.

The satin finish I could imagine to be just a bead-blast.

Serafino: It is a long shot but you could try emailing your question to the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust.

Damn you beat me to it henry:ugh: ;)
Anyway their postal address is:-
Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust
Wing Hangar
Hucknall
Notts NG15 6EU
England

Yes found it
[email protected]

Thanks guys, the email address give me hope and I'll give it a shot. :)

A further thought - are some of the components in 'as-new' condition and have the others been put through some recovery/cleaning process for re-use after servicing?

The ones I have seen were all used. I assume they had been cleaned since I see no evidence of their exposure to flame. Would cleaning have involved anything but the use of solvents?

Inconel-X is a terrific high strength at high temps steel. It was used to skin the X-15 which still holds the World absolute speed record, set in 195x, at Mach 6.72- about 4,500mph. Always seems to have a kinda Midnight blue/ black colour

Also useful in PRT's

Thanks Brain Fade, that's particularly interesting to me given the color of the small tube on many of the examples I've seen.