Re: Cryogenics Bat

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 21:14 5/10/99 +0000, Alice wrote:
> Help!!!  Baseball season is upon us and my husband wants to purchase a
> cryogenics bat.  Yes, they do cost a lot of money - - and that is OK if it
> is worth it!!! ....
> Alice Marie Pool


Hehehe.... one can only sympathize with the spouse of a sports addict.
Casting an eye over the high tech goods on offer, I see a variety
of carbon fiber, titanium, and ultra high tensile steel shafts carrying
a variety of oddly shaped club heads in aluminum, bronze, and other more
exotic alloys for the delectation of the golfer.

 Then there are the wild and wonderful tennis rackets.
 One can usually say these devices have some basis in technology.
 But one suspects that the underlying need is for psychological support,
where (apparently) many games are lost and won.

In this case the basis lies in heat-treatment methods.
 It has apparently been found that a deep initial quench
to liquid nitrogen temperatures has moderately improved the engineering
qualities of some steels in particular.

There is a variety of quenching fluids in use:
cool air, hot or cool oil, cold water, salt brine (there are debates
 on which of these last two is more rapid) and lately liquid nitrogen.

   Materials are usually tempered after the hardening quench bath,
because it can leave a hard but brittle object.
   The bane of fast quenching is the thermally induced distortion
which can spoil the whole effect.

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK