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JDS (Ohio) 
Posts:396
Loveland, Ohio - USA
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| 14-06-2007 01:40:56 AM |
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Alistair asked me to post this here; I originally posted it on EOT's Dive watch forum. I intend to forward the patent and Swagelok information to one of our in house metallurgists and see what his take is on it. If I get anything interesting, I'll add it to the thread. Any thoughts by the more qualified techies on the forum are also appreciated.
I get some pretty far out industry e-mail newsletters sometimes, and this sure sounds like it might be a description of what Sinn calls tegimented stainless steel. At least the application and results sound VERY similar, especially the hardness ranges and Swagelok's use of it on 316L SS. Guess what version of "surgical" SS seems most common in watch cases?
In their english catalog, Sinn mentions that "tegiment" is their trademark for the steel, and that it is accomplished with the help of "a process that can only be internationally guaranteed by one company in this quality..." Swagelok, I wonder?
The article on Swagelok's patented process
http://designnews.com/article/CA6451...&rid=482680043
The US patent from 2000
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-P...&RS=PN/6093303
The description of tegimented SS on Watchbuys
http://www.watchbuys.com/Master/SI-185.htm
The Sinn english catalog section describing Tegiment (look on page 163)
http://www.sinn.de/ENGLISH/CATALOG/Pages-151-167.pdf
I know that some of you guys are uber-techies / engineers / metallurgists, so any illumination would be appreciated.
Anyway, I thought this was an interesting coincidence, and might be a fun diversion for awhile. |
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JOHN
The cat ain't dead until you open the box and look. |
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ATG
Posts:3193
Bristol, London, Liverpool - UK
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| 14-06-2007 09:47:53 AM |
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Interesting!
i will speak to Nick English at Bremont as I am sure he would have something to say about that as thei hardening process for their
watches is pretty special too!
I will add the info to this post or get Nick to do it himself.
Cheers for posting!
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Regards
Alistair |
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DaveS
Posts:470
Bristol UK
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| 15-06-2007 05:33:46 PM |
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Tegimenting is one term, Kolsterising is another. Both are very similar processes, and I believe that neither is a registered trademark of either Sinn or Swagelok.
These processes were developed to allow a relatively low value basemetal to have a surface treatment of a much higher cost one, in order to save on the difficulties and cost of manufacturing wearing components entirely from the higher cost materials.
Swagelok are an amazing company, who have a policy of patenting as much as they possibly can, as they value their IP very highly. I have used Swagelok fittings that are marked with the name and design registration on washers less than 1mm thick in Laser etched letters. I do not know, but I guess that they have slightly developed a specific type of surface treatement for their use, and patented it. But I think the original process comes from elsewhere.
Bodycote, the huge surface treatments organisation, offers both in plants all over the world, and suggests that Tegimenting was developed in the Netherlands (but I cannot confirm this). There is an online version of Bodycote's company presentation out there, and it specifically mentions the watch industry as one of their clients for this type of process (but no watch company names are offered).
Interestingly (or not, depending on your POV), the carburising taht gives the increased hardness can be a problem in other applications as it embrittles at the same time, and reduces resistance to thermal cycling by allowing cracking to propagate through the hardened surface.
I look forward to hearing what an actual watch manufacturer has to say on the matter
Cheers
Dave |
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