ThyssenKrupp Magazin

Jochen Adams
is a pragmatic man who has
worked with steel throughout
his studies and his career.
The materials selection
program he developed
serves only one purpose:
helping the customer.
cleaning agents with which the machine works and which are not rinsed
off completely – and thus have an abrasive effect on the metal.
In another example, someone produces a pressure vessel for domestic
gas lines, and bores a steel round for this purpose. In the telling,
his voice goes up a register, his relaxed demeanor has vanished, and
one can only hear words like “incredible mistakes, quite the catastrophe.”
“Why? A pressure vessel is built from steel rounds by boring it. I
told them that would not work, because the interiors of steel rounds of
this thickness are not always gastight and therefore gas can escape. Incredible!”
However, how many people like to admit their mistakes? No one
does, according to Adams’ long years of experience. Therefore, he laid
the basis all the more persistently for locating mistakes where they arise
– wherever this may be, and even if it is in his own company. Adams is
a much too honest practitioner of his craft to keep the truth to himself.
After all, a considerable portion of his career success lies in the fact that
he has developed and built up a system that serves both to detect errors
and to avoid mistakes.
EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE TO BE SHARED
Whenever he retires, who will take over this legacy of his intensive professional
life? He holds out great hopes for three of the technicians
who work with him and are set to follow in his footsteps. Everything augurs
well for this at the moment, for Adams will pass on all the expertise
he has gained. So far, so good. However, a residual insecurity remains.
Everyone must gather experience for himself or herself, and
experience is an intrinsic component of Adams’ materials selection
program for ordinary, alloyed and high-alloy steel. It is hardly imaginable
that someone (like Adams) at some stage would no longer be able
to say: “Read up in this passage in the technical literature from 1968,
or in this text from 1978, or read the materials specification sheet from
1989.” There is no question that Jochen Adams will be sorely needed
for some time to come. 7
TK Magazine | 1 | 2004 |
MATERIALS SELECTION 83
THE MATERIALS SELECTION PROGRAM AT A GLANCE
In line with the individual user’s respective requirements,
the program recommends the suitable material for the relevant
application.
Finding the right material in three steps:
1. Select the sector
2. Identify the characteristics
3. Define specifications
The sector selection is followed by the indication of up to three
pre-selected characteristics, which are particularly relevant for
this sector. The user can confirm these characteristics or select
new ones. The necessary specifications for each characteristic
can then be determined precisely. During the selection
process, the program also checks the required availability of
the production material.
Precise selection possibilities
Characteristics are divided into 37 categories, such as vibration
strength, cold-forming properties, heat conductivity,
weather resistance, rolling properties, yield strength, tensile
strength, elongation after fracture, weldability, bend radius,
elasticity moduling and surface treatability etc.
Each of these characteristics can be indicated through a precise
value; to this end, up to 50 specifications per characteristic
are laid out.
Comprehensive contents
The program database contains about 500 steels, including
the 32 most commonly used high-alloy steels. The data are
based on measured materials analyses – which are also documented
in works products – from steel production. The information
is regularly adjusted and updated to reflect the latest
status of norms and technology.
Materials sheets are available for several steels. For steels that
can be handled warm, time-temperature conversion presentations
are available. As for steel types that can be used in components,
where vibration stress capability is required, stresscycle
diagrams are available that rate the fatigue strength. All
search results as well as the various ZTU presentations on file,
stress-cycle diagrams and material specifications sheets, can
be easily printed out.