Handbook of Soviet Alloy Compositions

This handbook is intended to provide users a ready reference for the chemical composition of a variety of Soviet alloys and primary metals. This handbook does not contain all Soviet alloy designators for several reasons. First, the Soviets are not always consistent in the designation of their alloys; that is, at times, different alloy designators will represent the same chemical composition, while a single alloy designator will be used to label several different alloy chemical compositions. Second, often a minor change in the composition of an alloy will cause the creation of a new designator, even though the alloy is not substantially changed (this is particularly true in the case of ferrous alloys). This creates the possibility of nearly a infinite number of alloys and thus alloy designators. Third, since the major source of Soviet alloy designators and compositions are articles from Soviet professional journals, reporting error, translation error, and nonstandard use of alloy designators by Soviet authors have compounded the ambiguity inherent in the Soviet system of alloy designation. Moreover, Soviet authors may employ alloy designators which are not official, and thus only appear once in the literature. And finally, during review of Soviet literature some alloy designators are missed. Consequently, with the needs of the user in mind, the author has attempted to limit the alloy designators listed to those that are the most used or technically significant, without eliminating all of the more obscure designations or sacrificing completeness. In sum, not all the alloy designators used by Soviets are listed, but the vast majority of the alloy systems or families are.