Stellite alloy is a range of cobalt-chromium alloys designed for wear resistance.

It may also
contain tungsten or molybdenum and a small but important amount of carbon. It is
atrademarked name of the Kennametal Stellite Company[1] and was invented by Elwood
Haynes[2] in the early 1900s as a substitute for cutlery that stained (or that had to be constantly
cleaned).

Composition
There are a large number of Stellite alloys composed of various amounts
of cobalt, nickel, iron, aluminium, boron, carbon, chromium, manganese, molybdenum, phosphor
us,sulfur, silicon, and titanium, in various proportions, most alloys containing four to six of these
elements.[3]

Properties
Stellite is a family of completely non-magnetic and corrosion-resistant cobalt alloys of various
compositions that have been optimised for different uses. Information is available from the
manufacturer, Kennametal Stellite, outlining the composition of a number of Stellite alloys and
their intended applications. The alloy currently most suited for cutting tools, for example, is
Stellite 100, because this alloy is quite hard, maintains a good cutting edge even at high
temperature, and resists hardening and annealing. Other alloys are formulated to maximize
combinations of wear resistance, corrosion resistance, or ability to withstand extreme
temperatures.
Stellite alloys display outstanding hardness and toughness, and are also usually very resistant to
corrosion. Stellite alloys are so hard that they are very difficult to machine, and anything made
from them is, as a result, very expensive. Typically, a Stellite part is precisely cast so that only
minimal machining is necessary. Stellite is more often machined bygrinding, rather than by
cutting. The alloys also tend to have extremely high melting points due to the cobalt and
chromium content.

Applications
Typical applications include saw teeth, hardfacing, and acid-resistant machine parts. Stellite was
a major improvement in the production of poppet valves and valve seats for the valves,
particularly exhaust valves, of internal combustion engines. By reducing their erosion from hot
gases, the interval between maintenance and re-grinding of their seats was dramatically
lengthened. The first third of the M2HB machine gun and M60 machine gun barrels (starting from
the chamber) are lined with Stellite. The locking lugs and shoulders of Voere Titan II rifles were
also made of Stellite. In the early 1980s, experiments were done in the United Kingdom to make
artificial hip joints and other bone replacements out of precision-cast Stellite alloys. It is also
widely used for making the cast structure of dental prostheses.

Stellite has also been used in the manufacture of turning tools for lathes. With the introduction
and improvements in tipped tools it is not used as often, but it was found to have superior cutting
properties compared to the early carbon steel tools and even some high speed steel tools,
especially against difficult materials such as stainless steel. Care was needed in grinding the
blanks and these were marked at one end to show the correct orientation, without which the
cutting edge could chip prematurely.
While Stellite remains the material of choice for certain internal parts in industrial process valves
(valve seat hardfacing), its use has been discouraged in nuclear power plants. In piping that can
communicate with the reactor, tiny amounts of Stellite would be released into the process fluid
and eventually enter the reactor. There the cobalt would be activated by the neutron flux in the
reactor and become cobalt-60, a radioisotope with a five year half life that releases very
energetic gamma rays. While not a hazard to the general public, about a third to a half of nuclear
worker exposures could be traced to the use of Stellite and to trace amounts of cobalt in
stainless steels. Replacements for Stellite have been developed by the industry, such as
the Electric Power Research Institute's "NOREM", that provide acceptable performance without
cobalt. Since the United States nuclear power industry has begun to replace the Stellite valve
seat hardfacing in the late 1970s and to tighten specifications of cobalt in stainless steels, worker
exposures due to cobalt-60 have dropped significantly.
Stellite was also used as the cage material for the first commercially available prosthetic heart
valve, the Starr-Edwards caged-ball valve, first implanted in 1960.