> Partly this broad range of uses for the heavy presses came from expanding the range of materials used in them. Originally the presses were designed to make parts from aluminum and magnesium, but by the 1960s they were not only pressing aluminum and magnesium but steel, titanium, nickel, copper, columbium, beryllium, and a variety of other metals.
Columbium is apparently an old name for niobium, and one perhaps still in use by American metallurgists.
There's no way anyone was making huge niobium forgings, though. Or nickel? Surely this is a reference to the use of those elements in superalloys.
Columbium is apparently an old name for niobium, and one perhaps still in use by American metallurgists.
There's no way anyone was making huge niobium forgings, though. Or nickel? Surely this is a reference to the use of those elements in superalloys.