Stress-Corrosion Cracking Of 70-30 Brass By Amines

THE action of mercury on stressed brass to produce cracks was known before Moore, Beckinsale and Mallinson1 showed that actual season cracking did not occur spontaneously but could be induced by ammonia. These investigators studied other substances, including diphenylamine, without finding that anything other than ammonia could cause season cracking. Grimston2 reported season cracking in cartridge cases stored in wooden boxes wetted with dilute sulphuric acid pickling solution. Season cracking associated with sulphur dioxide, water vapor and air has been reported by Johnston,3 although he reported that trimethylamine and pyridine did not cause cracking. Jevons4 has ascribed season cracking of brass in certain instances to trimethylamine, "aldehyde amine," "ketone amine" and pyridine, but no experimental work was done evidently to prove this definitely. Pyridine was investigated by Morris,' who found it to have considerable cracking power. In the present investigation, the object was a qualitative evaluation of a number of representative amines with respect to their ability to cause season cracking. Thus it was desired only that an appreciable vapor pressure of each amine be obtained in order to make the test as severe as possible, without attempting to test equivalent concentrations for comparative purposes. METHODS Specimens Two types of specimen were used: I. Unannealed 70-30 brass cups formed from 0.040-in. thick sheet. Height of cup was 1 3/8 in. and diameter was 1 7/8 inches. 2. First draw pieces of caliber .50 cartridge cases in the unannealed condition (70-30 brass). The cups were representative of a thin wall and thin base specimen, whereas the draw pieces have a thick base (1/4 in.) and a thick wall (approximately 3/32 in.). Both types of specimens contained high residual stress and cracked in less than one minute in a solution of I per cent mercurous nitrate and I per cent nitric acid provided that this was preceded by a 30-sec. pickle in 40 per cent nitric acid. Specimens were prepared as follows: (I) degreased in trichlorethylene, (2) rinsed in H20, (3) pickled 5 min. in 10 per cent by volume H2SO4 (1.84 sp. gr.), (4) rinsed in H2O, and (5) dried. Amines Tested In selecting the amines, representatives of the three series of amines and one series of substituted amines were chosen. The aliphatic series was represented by the methyl and ethyl primary, secondary and tertiary amines. These are the simplest aliphatic amines. For the aromatic series, the phenyl primary, secondary and tertiary amines were selected as being the simplest. The heterocyclic series was represented by pyridine, which is a simple heterocyclic base (tertiary amine).