On Mon, 9 Nov 2009 01:46:25 -0600, "William Wixon"
wrote:


come to think of it, that's something i've wondered about too. even more.
how in the heck do they make aluminum stick to stainless steel, and for
thousands of heating cycles. it endures terrible abuse, fluctuations in
heat thousands of times, probably like "shock cooling" too (i have no idea
if that's an actual term)(ok, how about "quenching"?).

i tried to read that article and tried to understand it as best i can and it
still amazes me they're able to reliably get aluminum to stick to stainless
steel, and copper to stainless too (under/after thousands of heating
cycles). the article talks about bringing the two metals together under
great pressure, or putting them through a rolling mill. wow. weird. i
wouldn't think putting them through a rolling mill would make them stick,
more like probably resist to an even greater degree wanting to stick
together, like work hardening them both. and so like they make a round disc
of copper stick to a sheet of stainless, but they can accurately register
it?!

hey, i guess for that matter, aren't some u.s. coins bimetallic?

i know they can get dissimilar metals to stick together using explosive
welding, but how to they do it otherwise? that's, as far as i know, a very
rare and extremely limited technique.


b.w.


I remember reading that the process used by the Mint for forming
tri-clad coins was invented (patented?) by the company that makes the
very good but outrageously expensive All-Clad cookware. I think that
their sucess at the coin process led them to introduce the cookware.

Joe