A US patent was just issued on February 25th, 2025 for a new family of super high speed steel alloys that I invented. You can read about them here:
These grades are so new that they don’t even have an official name yet. That’s one of the reasons why I am posting this. They possess exceptional attainable hardness, red hardness, and wear resistance. I was considering calling them RM grades and numbering them sequentially - RM1, RM2, etc. Does anyone here have any other suggestions about what a good strategy might be for naming these new alloys?
Surely you have read the Ayn Rand book?
Why not turn the book reference on its head, and call it “Atlas Steel”, “Dagny Steel” or if you really really liked the book “Ayn Steel”? Depends on if you found the book inspiring or not. While reading Atlas Shrugged myself several years ago I mentally remarked that the description of Hank’s steel made it seem more like tungsten than just another stainless grade. It seems you noticed the same thing!
I really did have to spend a few minutes on your website to make sure this wasn’t a very clever joke - sorry, I just don’t believe anything on the internet at face-value these days.
Where does your metal land among the typical numerical designations given to most alloys?
Do you believe your steel product will have an ideal target market and that it will be able to supplant existing alloys?
Thanks Sparweb! Yes, I did read Atlas Shrugged when I was in my 20s. The reasons why my company is called Reardon Metals is because my last name is Reardon, I am a metallurgist who invented a new family of steel alloys, and in the book they call Hank Rearden’s invention “Rearden Metal”. Hence Reardon Metals, or RM for short. I am considering calling them Atlas grades, but Atlas has been used by so many companies for different products that I’m not certain if that would be the right strategy. But I do like it. So I may choose it in the end.
Hi Latexman, my invention belongs to the family of high speed steels not stainless steels, but I get the association you are trying to make. Wearless steels? Hmm…that certainly goes along with the enhanced wear resistance. Several of these new alloys can achieve hardnesses in the very high 60s Rockwell C. Some should even be able to be hardened to over 70 Rockwell C. Not many steel alloys today have this capability. I would say that in terms of properties the fall somewhere between M42 and carbide. They outperform M42 in every conceivable way. And although they have far superior toughness to carbide they are not quite as hard.
Oh yeah, I knew they were not close to the SS’s. The W gave it away. I was trying to highlight their wearability and the parallel by adding -less might get some marketing mileage from the SS’s long, successful record.
Thanks Latexman! It was a slog getting through the machinery of the US patenting process. And it was quite expensive too. But I did it! I’m going to try and obtain a patent for this invention in several other countries as well. You would think that naming these grades would be an easy task, but it is proving to be a little more challenging than expected.
Who knew A2 is sometimes called “Thyrodur”? Maybe you want a name like that: vaguely suggestive of a gland in your body… but maybe the holder of that trademark has already registered “Adrenalloy” or “Pituituf”, so you shouldn’t name your alloy like those, after all.
Very cool, Maui! Can’t help much with names, RM series sounds ok to me. Do you think these will be tool steels for machining, or useful in other applications as well? Dunno what, maybe a durable brake rotor or clutch plate? Ball bearing alloy?
@Maui Give me some perspective, if you can. I like the wearability of my 100% titanium pruning shears. How does the hardness of your new steels compare to that?
Several of these new alloys can achieve hardnesses in the very high 60s Rockwell C. Some should even be able to be hardened to over 70 Rockwell C. Rockwell C hardness of Ti-6Al-4V – Grade 5 titanium alloy can be around 40 HRC. So the normal titanium hardness levels are substantially lower than what these new HSS grades can achieve after heat treatment.
Hi Ben, they will be used primarily for producing tooling in chip cutting applications. Think milling cutters, broaches, drill bits, and gear cutting hobs for machining other grades of steel alloys. Wire can be produced and welded onto a spring steel backing to form a bi-metal blade that can be used to make industrial band saw blades. And some of these new alloys can, in powder form, be used in metal 3D printing.
Finally got our company net nanny to let me read the web page. I’m impressed because I can only imagine the nonsense you had to put up with to defend the novelty of this invention to the patent examiners. Having done that process for some of our valves, I know what that entails.
Have read some of the patent itself, some of which I can understand even. Very cool stuff, Maui. Which gives me reason for this possible name, given the patent’s primary constituents of molybdenum and tungsten:
Call it MoW or MoWy or MoW-y steel? Trades on your nickname here…
ok, I’ll show myself out, and now you see why they don’t let me name things.
Ok, apparently Crucible steels has trademarked an alloy called CHRO-Mow? An AISI H12 steel:
CHRO-MOW® (AISI H12). Chro-Mow is a general purpose hot work tool steel, combining good high-temperature strength with moderate toughness and heat check …
But our stupid net nanny won’t let me open their website to see it.
I was Crucible’s high speed and tool steel metallurgist for over a decade Ben. I left there in 2006, about 3 years before their first bankruptcy filing in 2009. And now they filed for bankruptcy again for the second (and last) time in February of this year, the same month that my patent was awarded. I was thinking about having Crucible produce my steel, but that obviously isn’t going to happen now. Your suggestion of MoW and the various iterations on it made me laugh!
I actually had an excellent examiner at the USPTO. He had well over a decade of experience at the patent office, and it showed. The vast majority of the changes I was required to make to my claims were straightforward. But going through the machinery of the process was truly painful, especially the extended waiting. And now that I plan on filing overseas I get to go through it all over again, and pay even more money for the privilage than I did here. After this patent application is submitted I think that I will not be filing for any more patents in the near term. My bank account can’t take it, and neither can I.
Wowee, Mowee! That’s some serious metallurgical chops. Yes, it’s not cheap to get international patents done, we usually forked the money up front and did it all at once, not sure if that option exists any more. Any idea if somebody will buy Crucible’s assets and possibly restart the company? I have no idea on steel foundries, we do very little beyond ductile iron and bronze, just a bit of cast stainless steel stuff.
Hope you get a royalty deal with somebody. International foundries too, just have them put the money in a Swiss (or Cayman Is.) bank for you.
