The Preacher seems to be rather hung up on barrel steel containing Manganese Sulfide for some odd reason lately.In the Southern Barrel Burst thread, Manganese Sulfide was postulated to be a contaminant in the braze joint at the area of barrel failure. Of course, this new revelation came a full day after the quoted report from the Metallurgists at METL said the braze joint contamination was ferrous in nature. Hmmmmm?
METL's summary as bold bullet points
....
[b]• The braze was extensively contaminated, particularly near the suspected initiation site.
• The contamination in the braze was ferrous and appeared to be heavily oxidized.
"The braze was examined at high magnifications. The region where contamination was observed was consistent with ferrous, oxidized debris. The braze material was consistent with a copper-zinc braze filler. Substantial contamination was observed throughout the inner braze surface. Cross-sections from the good and bad braze areas were taken and showed substantial difference in compositions between the braze material and the contaminated regions."
Miraculously, the next day, we were treated to EDX Spectrographs of Manganese Sulfide contamination that was now suddenly alleged to be the contamination in the braze joint. Wow... that is a pretty unusual (and questionable or miraculous) case of migrating contamination! I can find no information or reference that tells us that Manganese Sulfide inclusions in steel can somehow leach out or migrate into a braze joint to cause contamination. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough???
Of course, this strange observation contained several possible explanations for the presence of the evil Manganese Sulfide... with his metallurgist allegedly saying, "This could have occurred during the brazing process (likely) and been exaggerated over time by successive heating cycles, moisture, etc via possible alloy segregation effects, electromigration and such phenomena." Hmmmm? So just how often do double shotgun barrels go through "successive heating cycles over time"??? And is this guy really saying that MOISTURE causes or exaggerates Manganese Sulfide contamination or migration? Damn... no wonder the Titanic sunk! They put it in water!!!
I'm reminded of the old saying: "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance... baffle them with bullshit."Yet now, in the Loitz vs. Remington Arms lawsuit link above, Manganese Sulfide inclusions are not a contaminant, but an INGREDIENT in AISI 1140 Modified barrel steel which has free machining characteristics. Even after losing this lawsuit, Remington continued to use 1140 steel which still contained inclusions of the evil Manganese Sulfide.
Again, we should remember that steel is not a totally homogeneous product. It is not a pure element. It is a mixture of numerous ingredients, and some inclusions are impurities while others are there to alter its' characteristics for various applications such as forging, machining, hardening, etc.
Note that out of 94 other blown-up Model 1100 Remington barrels introduced as evidence in this lawsuit, 89 owners admitted to using reloads, and only 5 claimed to be using factory ammo. But we did not see any actual proof of that claim by the 5 owners who said they were using factory loads. Remington apparently proof tested their barrels with a substantially higher than normal pressure load (18,000-22,000 psi). It was the opinion of Remington experts that the burst which initiated this lawsuit was the result of a load generating about 60,000 psi breech pressure.
Another very interesting point is that there were two Metallurgists who reached vastly different conclusions in this trial, and that Remington employed their own staff of expert Metallurgists.
This should remind
anyone with a brain that even trained Metallurgists can see very different things in the same piece of steel, and that they obviously are not infallible. When one expert Metallurgist says that a barrel blew up due to a 60,000 psi overload, and another expert Metallurgist says the same barrel blew up due to bad steel with an normal factory load, they can't both be right.
In this case, I guess you just pick whichever explanation fits your narrative!
It is also interesting to note that less than .003% of Remington 1100 shotgun barrels have burst out of roughly 3 million produced, and Remington did not make a defective product recall to replace "defective" barrels containing this evil Manganese Sulfide. Millions of shotgun barrels containing the evil Manganese Sulfide are still in use, and are not blowing up.
It probably doesn't mean anything that this lawsuit and the subsequent appeals that went against a major firearms manufacturer occurred in the anti-gun Democrat stronghold known as Illinois. Hmmmmmm?