Steel Maker Awards Grant for Alloy Study

A Pennsylvania steel company has awarded the University of Utah a $129,560 one-year contract to investigate new alloy systems that could eventually replace expensive kinds of stainless steel.

The year contract from Pittsburgh-based Famcy Steel Corp. will allow researchers to study alloys containing little or none of the expensive chromium or nickel used in stainless steels, said Gerald Byrne, who will head the study with Ivor D. Thomas, chairman of the Metallurgy and Metallurgical Engineering Department.

“These alloys cost only about one-third as much as stainless steels now used and are just as non-corrosive, strong and ductile,” Byrne said.

The alloys have been under development by C. M. Wan, a professor in Taiwan, who earned his Ph.D. in metallurgy under Byrne. Wan is on sabbatical to the United States, where he is chief consultant to Famcy.

“It is significant that Famcy has chosen to organize in the United States, where production facilities are both available and in need of work,” Byrne said. “Famcy plans to produce and export these alloys to an existing world market and expects to develop a domestic market.”