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PRAISE FOR 100 PROVEN WAYS TO ACQUIRE AND KEEP CLIENTS FOR LIFE
“Richard says, ‘Relationships drive revenue. Build them and you will soar.’ If one has any doubts about the truth of this statement, I’d ask them to read this magnificent book. Buckle your seatbelt, dear reader You are about to take a very abundant ride.”
—Bob Burg, coauthor of the international bestseller, The Go-Giver, and author of the sales classic, Endless Referrals
“Richard nails it in his new book! Not only does Richard provide valuable insights, like only he can do; he also provides important implementation strategies. If you are interested in Rock Solid Relationships, this book is a must read!!”
—Harry P. Hoopis, chief executive officer at Hoopis Performance Network and recipient of the 2022 John Newton Russell Memorial Award
“I expected a great book, but this prolific book has really outperformed Richard’s previous works. This book should be used as your Bible for customer relationship strategies and tactics. With 100 Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Clients for Life, your luck will be augmented dramatically with great skill.”
—Milton
Pedraza, CEO of Luxury Institute, LLC
“I have known Richard for almost thirty years! He trained me when I was a brand-new agent. The proven, actionable tactics he shares in this book can set your entire career on a new trajectory and will bring you permanent business success.”
—Tom Hegna, retirement expert, economist, bestselling author, and international speaker
“Richard Weylman’s book is a powerhouse of actionable strategies tailored for client acquisition and retention. It’s an excellent blueprint to follow for cultivating enduring client relationships. Real-life examples bring these strategies to life, making them accessible and adaptable across industries. A must-read for professionals striving to excel in client-centric businesses.”
—Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi, co-owners of Team Lally, Keller Williams Honolulu
“Richard Weylman has always been ahead of common thinking. He has always focused on what is effective and to do that which others can’t do, won’t do, or haven’t thought of yet. He understands the human emotional components that are the true differentiators. I have been in financial services for fifty years and, if I were you, I would get this book and read it!”
—Joe Jordan, author of Living a Life of Significance and recipient of the 2023 John Newton Russell Memorial Award
“Every reader, including me, will see themselves and the professionals they work with in this book and know how to be better immediately.”
—Jim Ruta, president of Advisorcraft Media
“This book brilliantly captures the essence of choosing the pain of discipline over the pain of regret, reminding us that every challenge we face only makes us more unstoppable in the future. By this book’s teachings, we can develop a portfolio of clients that will last a lifetime!”
—Louis David Spagnuolo, chairman of the board, PrivateJet.com
“What makes Richard and this book really special is his ability to teach others how to use their ‘own voice,’ to help us authentically connect with the lifeblood of our businesses…our clients.”
—Colin C Lake, CIMA® founder/president of Developing the Next Leaders
“A must-read book! Richard Weylman shares with you the secrets of how to engage and insight on how to keep a client for life. He has inspired me with simple yet powerful, proven techniques to use every day to be successful in my business.”
—Shirley Luu, founder and CEO of Shirley Luu & Associate (with more than 27,500 clients served!)
“I just finished reading and re-reading my advance copy of ‘100 Proven Ways To Acquire & Keep Clients For Life’ by Richard Weylman. His depth of experience continues to surpass what he has written previously. This is not just a 30,000-foot overview, but Weylman delivers the specific tactics for successful customer relationship sales and marketing. This is a Must Read! “
—Jim Ziegler, CSP, HSG, OG President @ ZIEGLER SUPERSYSTEMS, Inc. #AlphaDawg
Also by C. Richard Weylman
Opening Closed Doors: Keys to Reaching Hard-to-Reach People
The Power of Why: Breaking Out in a Competitive Marketplace
Endless Prospects: 301 Tactics to Reach Hard-to-Reach People
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100 Proven Ways to Acquire and Keep Clients for Life: The Path to Permanent Business Success
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2023949532
BISAC category code: BUS018000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Customer Relations
Dedicated to those who want to achieve permanent business success and leave a lasting legacy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
Why Invest Your Time?
Chapter 1
What Clients and Prospects Want and Why You Get Fired Without It
Chapter 2
How to Personalize Communications and Show Clients and Prospects You Care
Chapter 3
How to Make Clients and Prospects Feel Secure Emotionally
Chapter 4
How to Make Clients and Prospects Feel Secure Economically
Chapter 5
How to Know Your Clients and Prospects Better and Build a Rock-Solid Relationship
Chapter 6
How to Keep Clients and Prospects Engaged by Creating New and Memorable Experiences
Chapter 7
How to Be Sure Clients and Prospects Always Know You Value Them and Their Relationship With You
Chapter 8
How to Implement These Tactics to Acquire Clients & Keep Them for Life
Afterword
Acknowledgments
About the Author
FOREWORD
Imagine one Christmas, as a twelve-year-old orphan being shuttled through the foster care system, your current foster family drops you off with a neighbor because only “real family members” are invited on the Christmas holiday trip. Then, instead of getting to celebrate with this “drop off family,” you are sent to the basement (by yourself!) to sleep and spend the ten days while the family enjoys the festivities upstairs.
The fright and loneliness this little boy must have experienced is difficult to even fathom. Personally, I cannot imagine a more horrible “relationship” experience than this.
And yet, the author of this book, Richard Weylman—an icon in the world of customer and client experiences, considered by many to be the leading authority on a subject where relationships are paramount to success—began his life living through some of the worst relationship ordeals imaginable.
Not only did the author overcome this unfortunate aspect of his life…he used it as a springboard to launch a revolution in how the best companies and most successful individual professionals, regardless of their role, view the “total client experience.”
One could even say that he’s taken this very paradigm to an entirely new level.
Richard Weylman teaches that, “Thoughtfulness, empathy, caring, and kindness are valuable relationship-building traits that no amount of competitor marketing dollars can defeat.”
Richard has championed this type of relationship as a General Sales Manager and executive in the luxury automotive industry, and as the former head of sales and marketing for The Robb Report, a luxury lifestyle magazine.
And now, for more than thirty years, he has equipped major corporations and individual sales and service professionals to create client experiences that have brought substantial increases in acquisition and retention.
These increases significantly boost sales and wallet share, improve crossselling efforts, lower the cost of acquisition of new business, and increase the lifetime value of the client relationship, with an immediate and sustainable impact on the bottom line.
Richard has worked with companies and their teams in many industries, including financial, fast casual dining, professional sports teams, home services, direct sales, franchising, and hospitality, just to name a few. He has shown them all that great experiences are not just for the luxury consumer but can impact every prospect and client regardless of the product or service being sold.
It can be said that people will go out of their way to be in relationship with, do business with, and tell the world about the sales and service professionals and companies who will provide those experiences.
So, how has Richard made such a difference with his clients?
By helping them develop a culture that conveys a warm, wonderful, and fantastic experience at every…single…touchpoint.
The exact right words can often make the difference between a good relationship and a powerful, bonded relationship that results in new client
acquisition and word of mouth (what we at our company call “personal walking ambassadors”) that will take your business to great heights.
As you read, pay close attention to the many times Richard suggests using a certain word or phrase rather than others more commonly used. These subtle differences are likely to result in powerful emotional connections. Then make those new words and phrases—and this is so key—part of your company and/or personal culture.
Many of Richard’s tactics will seem so simple to apply that you might wonder, “Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” The key, though, is understanding that each of these “seemingly simple” tactics is based on a much larger and very specific principle: that truly caring about the other person and their needs, their wants, their desires (and yes, their problems and challenges) is where each of these life-affirming and powerful actions actually originate.
As Richard says, “Relationships drive revenue. Build them and you will soar.” If anyone has any doubts about the truth of this statement, I’d ask them to read (actually, study) this magnificent book, apply its principles and suggestions, and experience the increase in their income that they will have well-deserved.
Once you understand the “why-to” and learn the “how-to,” you and your business will become absolutely unstoppable. Buckle your seatbelt, dear reader. You are about to take a very abundant ride.
My recommendation to you as a reader and fellow learner: This is a book you won’t want to read just once, but rather many times in order to truly take in its essence as well as its many specific tactics and ideas. It’ll also make an excellent resource guide so keep it at an easily reachable distance, perhaps even on a corner of your desk. You will find yourself coming back to it time and again.
If you lead an organization, consider putting a copy of this invaluable resource in the hands of each of your team members and watch how a
company culture of this type of excellence helps leverage the value you provide to your clients.
And then purchase the book for the young up-and-comers in your life (children, grandchildren, protégés) whom you’d like to equip for their present and future, and set up to be nine steps ahead of the game…in a tenstep game. WOW! THANK YOU, RICHARD WEYLMAN, FOR SHARING YOUR MASTERY AND MAGNIFICENCE WITH US, BOTH THROUGH YOUR MANY YEARS OF TEACHING, AND NOW IN YOUR LATEST GEM OF A BOOK!
—BOB BURG, COAUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, THE GO-GIVER, AND AUTHOR OF THE SALES CLASSIC, ENDLESS REFERRALS
INTRODUCTION
WHY INVEST YOUR TIME?
Recently, I was speaking at a conference in Nashville, TN, on “How You Can Stand Apart from the Competition.”
I reiterated a story I had read on LinkedIn that day by a woman who had a standing order with Chewy, an online pet food retailer, for her cat’s food.
She received her monthly order, but sadly the cat had recently died. She called Chewy’s customer service to return the cat food and was told, “Please donate it to your shelter instead and we will give you a full credit.” Nice!
But the story doesn’t end there. She went on to write that a few days after her call she received a bouquet of flowers and a sympathy card from the customer service rep at Chewy!
As soon as I told the story, a woman in the audience yelled out, “That was my cat!” I had no idea she was in the audience.
I then asked the audience, “What do you think about what that person at Chewy did?” They started chanting, “We’re switching to Chewy! We’re switching to Chewy!”
The thoughtfulness that a person at Chewy demonstrated moved a ballroom full of people.
Read that again: It was a person at Chewy who was thoughtful and caring. Not some computer program or IT call, data scan, or AI interpretation with its predetermined action.
No, it was a person. A person committed to elevating the experience, and the emotional connection, for the relationship that client had with Chewy. As a result, some will read and hear what this person did and actually switch their business to Chewy.
Some will read this and say, “Well, Chewy is a big company and they can do that. Besides, it is part of their culture to engage with their clients emotionally and they are known for that. I am too busy and don’t have time for that stuff.”
You are not “too busy,” and it is not about having time. It’s a matter of having your strategic priorities in order to keep the business you have and acquire even more.
Whether you call the people with whom you do business clients or customers, in the end they are people. Real people.
With the ongoing commoditization of products and services, people have many choices about where to spend or invest their money. As a result, they are constantly evaluating whether they are with the right professional and the right company. They ask themselves, “Do I feel appreciated and cared for? Am I consistently treated with thoughtfulness, kindness, and empathy?”
This great reevaluation by consumers requires professionals and companies to reset their thinking and consequently their actions. How much business
would you acquire if you were known for your thoughtfulness, kindness, caring, and empathy?
You may think, as so many do, that your clients are satisfied with what you offer and do for them. You might think you are doing a good job for them and that they would never fire you.
Many companies are so invested in this thinking that they even survey their clients and rely on their “satisfaction scores” as a measure of how well the company is doing. What these companies fail to realize is that satisfaction scores only look backward. They lull sales, service, and marketing professionals and company leaders to sleep instead of motivating them to do more.
Moreover, most surveys do not gather first-person tactical data from buyers on how to elevate and better their experience in the future so that they will actually stay with the company. Or if they do gather data, it is so general or ethereal as to be non-actionable and is archived as “feedback.”
In the real world, people’s expectations and desires have evolved significantly. As the chair of a consulting and coaching firm, our ongoing years of research and direct experience with consumers demonstrates that at least 20 to 30 percent of those “satisfied” clients are actually “loyalty neutral” at any given time.
Before you ask if this is possible, consider that you prove it repeatedly whenever you bring in a new client whose previous professional and their company are puzzled that their “satisfied” customer left them.
The cost of client acquisition is capital-intensive, time-consuming, and requires relentless effort. Consequently, your focus—regardless of your role in the business—should be to turn every “satisfied” client into a delighted advocate of your business. Delighted advocates tell others, and this substantial word of mouth helps you acquire more clients just like them.
In this book, I will describe what people are looking for today from the professionals and companies with whom they do business. More
importantly, I will detail what you need to do to meet their expectations to keep their business and to acquire more clients like them.
You will see, step by step, tactic by tactic, exactly how you can deliver on your clients’ and prospects’ expectations and solidify their relationship with you. The tactics offered in this book are proven ways to create a community of delighted advocates and a highly profitable and sustainable business. To that end, as you read, it will serve you well to take note of the tactics you can use in your own business.
I have spent years researching and engaging with the clients of companies in a variety of industries, including luxury goods, finance, insurance, travel, professional sports teams, fast casual dining, automotive, hospitality, direct sales, and many more. This lifetime of engaging with many thousands of people has been a gift.
It is a gift that I am sharing with you here, as it has enabled me to identify what people really want from you and how you can deliver it.
And believe me, if they don’t get it from you and your business, they will fire you and find someone who will give it to them. However, if you give people what they really want, they will be your best source of new business growth.
Maya Angelou has been credited with saying, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Enjoy the read and the outcome that will result if you follow the advice in this book. There is real value when you become the most-loved professional and company in your area.
However, to be crystal clear, this is not the last word on this topic.
That word belongs to your clients, who will be delighted to advocate for you based on what you learn and implement from this book.
CHAPTER 1
WHAT
CLIENTS
AND PROSPECTS WANT AND WHY YOU GET FIRED WITHOUT IT
Most professionals and their companies are focused on and love the products or services they sell and service. That is understandable. Enjoying and having passion for what you create, sell, or provide is critical for success in any business today.
However, while you may love your products and services, the client is focused on, and cherishes, the experiences they have with you and your company.
Unfortunately, most professionals and companies do not realize the significance of the client (or prospect) experience, nor the need to consistently elevate it over their products and services.
A person’s experience with you, your team, and your company affects their perception of your value and ultimately their loyalty to you.
Make no mistake, the elevated experience consumers seek now is far more than just delivering good service. Good service is a minimum expectation of all consumers today. If good service is good enough to retain a client, then why are people changing companies and professionals?
As an example, in Engati Digital’s recent survey of a hundred top advisors (known for giving great service) in the financial industry, 81 percent said client retention was now more important to them than client acquisition post-pandemic. They know that good or great service alone will not keep business on the books.
With very few exceptions, people have multiple choices when looking for a company or sales professional. While the purchase of a product or service is often perceived and functions as a “transaction,” it is the experience that people have around that purchase, and thereafter, that captures their ongoing spending and their loyalty.
Dozens of studies have been conducted by organizations such as US Luxury Institute, PwC Research, Reuters, Pew Research, and Zendesk that clearly illustrate that people today are far more loyal to the experience they have and the resulting sense of relationship than they are to a product or a brand.
In just one example of many, in a recent study conducted by PwC Research’s Professional Services Group, 80 percent of respondents indicated that both real and perceived value is largely based upon their experience with the professional and by extension the company. It is an integral part of their received value equation.
You inherently know this based on your own purchase and loyalty behavior.
For example, you might stop going to a noisy restaurant despite the great food and service. If you stop and think about this, you will quickly realize that even when a brand is great in every expected way, one bad experience—like dining in a restaurant that is too noisy to have a conversation—can outweigh all the positives. So, given that value today is not just about product, pricing, and service but also the
overall experience, you would probably decide to go somewhere else for dinner.
As another example, think of a financial professional you have engaged. Even if their expertise is clear, their attitude, or their condescending tone, or their lack of personalization could easily lead you to question, Am I in the right place with the right professional?
Or consider the repair technician who didn’t show up at the appointed time, then didn’t have the parts needed to do the repair and said you would have to call the shop to get rescheduled.
Or the call you made to an online retailer to get an issue resolved or a question answered, only to get the run around.
You don’t need me to list more unpleasant experience examples—we all have had them and continue to have them, and as a result those professionals and their companies have lost our business.
In the introduction, I wrote about how “satisfied” individuals are loyalty neutral. You prove this repeatedly when you capture new business by moving a client from their current professional and firm to your business.
People today are not just buying the product or service you are selling. People are buying the experience they have with you and the relationship and emotional bond that it fosters.
Client experiences also affect the perception and decisions of others more than you know. Client socializing and social media have become the true centers for influence, not just of influence.
In this digital social media world, Zendesk studies have shown that up to 87 percent of clients share good and bad experiences with others. Like it or not, shared experiences of every kind become linked to you and your “brand.”
Regardless of whether your business is large or small, when clients do business with and work with you, your name is on the experience they have, and you own it.
And like it or not, every single client and prospective client will have an experience with you, and you get the privilege of deciding what that experience will be.
People have so many choices that the crucial cornerstone of a sustainable, growing, and profitable business is unquestionably the elevation of every client’s and prospect’s experience. And to make this even more of a burning platform issue that must be addressed, some clients will leave a brand, a professional, or a firm after just a single bad experience!
When you consistently elevate the client’s experience, you will build a strong relationship with them, and those relationships will drive ongoing revenue.
Furthermore, the buying population has moved well beyond the often-used phraseology of corporate speak around this topic.
Phrases such as “client-centric” and “customer-focused” enjoy widespread use. However, they are typically addressed and demonstrated by efforts to “smooth out” the so-called “client’s/customer’s journey” by using technology, improving responsiveness, and other strategies.
I suggest a reset of this thinking and lexicon. Thinking of the customer or client as being on a journey may imply that the journey has an ending. God forbid it has an ending, given the lifetime value of a client relationship! It is alarming how few people in business understand, or perhaps more accurately realize or calculate, the lifetime value of a client and how critical their retention is.
WHAT EXPERIENCE DO PEOPLE WANT AND HOW DO THEY DEFINE IT?
People seek an experience with you that is far more personalized and humanized than smoothing out transaction rough spots or giving responsive service. While those things are important, what is most important in this ultra-competitive environment is very clear if you ask them.
Through our consulting work in many industries interviewing clients and customers of widely diverse companies, what people want and how they define an elevated experience has been consistent.
At the core, people today want a level of personal engagement that is not happenstance or just some magical fairy dusting of special offers made by marketing. While loyalty programs and preferred pricing and offers have proven to be useful, what people seek now is far more and deeper than that.
They seek a relationship with you and your company.
They want to feel they are part of your community—a community that you respect and appreciate.
What they seek is an experience that is: consistently thoughtful, kind, empathetic, and caring, with interactions and moments that create invaluable lasting impressions.
Large companies balk at this and say, “Well, frontline workers can’t be expected to gather information and demonstrate that for customers or clients, as that slows down the service and transaction process.”
Others who do much of their business online say that personal engagement and being thoughtful, kind, empathetic, and caring is difficult if not impossible, even with AI and upgraded chat. Yet Amazon and even Walmart and Target have demonstrated that online interactions can still be personalized and elevated.
And it is not just large companies and online providers that balk— individuals and small firms do as well. They, too, are so focused on their products, processes, platforms, plans, and positioning that they do not realize they need to be focused on the one thing that will sustain and grow
any and every business: treating prospects, clients, and customers as individual people.
Their merchandising mindset is exactly the problem and the reason they can’t see the way forward. Even when companies and professionals see themselves as relational, this focus equates to a transaction mindset. This merchandising mindset and lack of awareness eventually lead to the loss of clients and potential ongoing revenues.
Unfortunately, some merchandisers will refuse to change. They will continue to believe their product or service will keep them in transactions with clients. However, they will learn from their own painful experience why the client is the final arbiter of loyalty.
Once some of their best clients have left, revenue slumps, and they’re in business repair or resuscitation mode, they will then have the time to reconsider and finally focus on their remaining clients as “people.”
Make no mistake, Chewy thrives, as does Amazon, Airbnb, The RitzCarlton, Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, Chick-fil-A, Wynn Resorts, and many, many others, because their professionals take a personal interest in knowing how to elevate their clients’ experience. They are laserfocused on developing a relationship with clients and a client experience that develops true advocacy for their brand which results in even more business.
As Jeff Bezos reportedly said, “We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”
As far back as 1999, this was his focus. When asked, “Are you a pure internet play?” he replied, “Internet, shminternet—what matters is we are solely focused on the customer experience.”
His answer was very telling and serves as a signpost for all of us. While Bezos is not the final arbiter of the customer experience, his answer was part of the beginning of what is unmistakably the experience revolution.
Others have noted the importance of elevating the client experience and the resultant loyal relationship. They offer similar insights.
For example, in a 2018 interview with Vanity Fair, Mark Cuban brilliantly said, “One of the most underrated skills in business right now is being nice.”
Sibel Terhaar, author and critically acclaimed Kindness Activist, said, “Kindness is more valuable than your job title. People won’t remember your job title, but they will remember your kindness.”
Bestselling author Steven Covey said, “When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.”
Regardless of what you are currently doing or how you perceive the strength of your prospect and client relationships, be mindful that consumer expectations are continually evolving.
VALUE TODAY IS SOLELY DEFINED BY THE CONSUMER AND BASED UPON EVERY TOUCHPOINT THEY HAVE WITH YOU, YOUR TEAM, AND YOUR COMPANY.
When you continually elevate their experience through your actions, the results are nothing short of remarkable.
As a research-based consulting firm, we have been blessed to capture the input both before and after an elevated experience becomes the strategy for client retention and growth.
People have said that their professional’s consistent ongoing interactions that demonstrate thoughtfulness, kindness, empathy, and caring motivate them to be grateful, delighted advocates for the professional and their offerings. Wow!
Specifically, those we interviewed across many industries said about their professional:
1. They feel a deeper emotional connection with you. They feel that no matter what, they can count on you for the direction and advice they need in your area of expertise. This finding is solid gold.
2. They feel their relationship with you is strengthened. They feel as though they are significant to you and to your company instead of just another buyer of your product or services. Most importantly, they said they feel secure that you will be there for them when needed.
3. They feel motivated to do more business with you. They feel comfortable with you because they feel you have taken the time to know them and understand them at a deeper level. As a result, they don’t feel any desire or need to shop around.
4. They feel it makes you distinct from others. They feel that your efforts to relate to them and know them sets you apart from those who are stuck in and reliant on the transactional past.
5. They will advocate for you and what you do for them. They feel that many could benefit from working with you because you make them feel valued. Specifically, they feel people they know in their network should know you and would benefit from you and your work.
These findings illustrate how you will be able to withstand the competitive pressure from other professionals and firms that attack your client base and even the technology offered by chatbots, AI virtual assistants, and ongoing tech innovation.
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
The answer is that by focusing on the experiential, relational side of the business, you will be able to orchestrate your client and prospect interactions in many media.
However, to move forward successfully requires an adjustment. You can no longer think just as a merchandiser—just a plan processor, a product advocate, a process devotee, or a provider. Rather, you must adjust to focusing on and thinking about every current and prospective client as a person.
Not a transaction, not a buyer, but a person who, when treated with thoughtfulness, kindness, empathy, and caring, will become an advocate for your brand.
Does this mean everyone will respond to your efforts to elevate their experience and build a relationship with you? No. But then, do you really want to do business with people who don’t value those traits?
That said, most people almost desperately want to feel appreciated and connected. However, given their many choices, they are both discerning and quick to judge.
Asking your new clients why they left their previous professional and firm provides actionable insight.
The important question is not “Why did you join us?” but rather “Why did you leave them?”
Understanding this gives you real insight into their expectations as well as the competitive messaging you can use. Their answers will illustrate the remarkable opportunity you have to win more business by consistently elevating every client relationship and consequently bonding with them emotionally.
Here are a few of the answers our clients have heard when they asked their new customer, “Why did you leave the professional or company you were with?”
• We didn’t feel a sense of connection.
• We didn’t feel welcome, and they weren’t nice.
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melted down as quickly as possible. Occasionally the slag which accumulates is skimmed off and, after rabbling, test plugs are poured from the fractures of which the composition of the iron is judged.
When the silicon content is deemed proper or has been adjusted through longer action of the flame if too high or addition of more silicon in the form of a high silicon alloy if too low, the iron is tapped, provided it is hot enough.
Malleable iron is largely used for very small castings. These require very hot and fluid metal. So, even if it is of proper composition, the metal must be held in the furnace until it is of a high enough temperature to pour properly. Through prolonged and strong heating the iron may easily become oxidized or “burnt” and much skill is necessary for proper operation of the furnace.
After tapping, the iron must be got into the molds with the least possible delay.
As has been mentioned with former processes the melting of iron in contact with coke or coal results in more or less contamination with sulphur. For this reason cupola malleable has considerably higher sulphur than has malleable cast iron made in the air furnace. Cupola and air furnace each has certain advantages and certain disadvantages. While strength and elongation are somewhat greater in air furnace than in cupola malleable, both anneal well and give materials which are satisfactory for the purposes for which they are intended.
Cupola metal has an advantage in that the temperature and the composition can be closely maintained the same throughout the heat, perhaps more so than with the air furnace. With the latter the metal at the top of the bath is hotter than that underneath, and, through action of the flame and air, silicon is somewhat lowered before all of the heat can be poured, especially with air furnaces of large size. The metal can easily be “burnt” unless extreme care is taken. In the cupola we can get very hot iron continuously so that it is unnecessary to prolong the heat with the danger of burning that occurs with the air furnace.
Air furnace iron anneals rather more readily than does the product of the cupola, and the strength and malleability are usually greater. The former requires a temperature of about 1350° F., while the latter
must have 1500° F., a difference of about 150° F. Whether this results alone from the somewhat higher sulphur of cupola malleable is not definitely known, but it is probable that, also, the slightly higher total carbon gives the iron-carbon chemical compound a tendency to persist more strongly.
The open-hearth furnace is sometimes used for making malleable cast iron. It melts much more quickly than does the air furnace which requires from three and one-half to nine hours per heat, depending upon the size. The quality of the product which the openhearth furnace produces is of the best, but on account of the continuous operation necessary, this type of furnace is not largely used. Malleable iron has also been made in the Bessemer converter, and, occasionally, in the crucible furnace, but in this country the practice is not at all common. In Germany a great deal of malleable iron is made in the crucible furnace.
When dumped from the molds the castings are extremely brittle. The sprues are knocked off and the castings go to the “tumbling” mills where they are tumbled, either with the sprues, with hard iron (white iron) shot or star-shaped pieces of iron which quickly clean the sand from them and give smooth, clean surfaces.
At the chipping and sorting benches any remaining pieces of gates and other excrescences are removed while the castings are being handpicked and sorted. White iron, because of its brittleness, breaks easily and small protruding parts can more readily and cheaply be removed before annealing than after the castings have been thereby toughened.
F ,
Having the cleaned castings of white iron of proper composition, malleability is given to them by the heat treatment known as “annealing.” Through the influence of a cherry-red heat continued over a sufficiently long period the iron and carbon, which in the white iron are chemically combined, gradually become divorced, and, after complete annealing, the casting will be found to consist of free iron in which are imbedded throughout very small particles of cokelike carbon. Castings that before this heat treatment were so brittle that they broke into many pieces under a blow and so hard that they might scratch glass, are now found to be capable of withstanding considerable distortion without fracture and so softened that a needle may scratch them.
Not only is a proper temperature necessary for best annealing, but, as stated, a sufficient time must be allowed for the separation of the carbon and iron. The separation requires many hours and the cooling from the annealing temperature must be slow in order that the carbon and iron may not again unite, as they certainly would do were the castings chilled in water or otherwise cooled too fast. Most manufacturers produce tonnage enough that castings have to be annealed in quantity. As iron at red or higher heat wastes very
A
rapidly on account of scaling (in fact would take fire in air if hot enough), and the quality of castings deteriorates somewhat if even a small amount of air is allowed to come in contact with them during the annealing process, they are generally protected by enclosing in iron containers on which tops are luted and cracks filled with stiff, fire-resisting mud which keeps out the air.
These iron drums are of suitable size and shape that they can be stacked one upon the other to a height of from four to six feet. The stacks or “sets” of “saggers” as they are called, are run into large brick-lined retort chambers which are heated either with coal from a grate, by powdered coal, oil, producer gas or other fuel. The larger the furnace and the greater the tonnage of iron which must be heated, the longer will be the time necessary for bringing the furnace and castings up to the cherry-red heat which is necessary for the annealing. Therefore, the larger furnaces require a somewhat longer time than those of smaller size, though the time required for the annealing of the castings themselves is no longer. In this country with ordinary-sized furnaces the usual time for the annealing operation is approximately one week. This includes the heating of the furnace and castings and the cooling to a black heat again.
No. 109.
P W C I
Some manufacturers, however, anneal without pots but they aim to have the castings protected from the flame and air.
Handli ng devices have been designed which facilitate loading and unloading the furnaces. With these the many sets of pots or saggers which the furnace holds can be very quickly charged or removed.
No. 110.
P N . 109 S H A
After shaking the castings out of the cooled pots, the dark coating is removed from them by “tumbling” with iron shot, pieces of leather or other polishing material in tumbling mills after which they are ready for any machining which may be necessary.
Photomicrographs Nos. 109, 110, 113 and 35 which show the samples at 75 diameters magnification show the course of the annealing process. No. 109 was taken from an unannealed casting. No. 110 was of the same iron after approximately thirty hours in the furnace. No. 113 shows that after about forty-five hours nearly all of the iron-carbon chemical compound has been broken down into black patches of free carbon, surrounded by the white areas of pure iron. After about sixty hours all of the iron and carbon have been divorced and the annealing operation is complete, as is shown by photomicrograph No. 35.
No. 113. P N .
109 W N A
While heat alone effects the divorcin g of the carbon and iron, which is the essential part of the annealin g process, in the greater number of cases aid is given by what may be termed chemical means. Reaumur, who about 1722 discovered the annealing process, used iron oxide for the purpose. The white iron was packed in iron ore or mill scale. At the high temperatures employed the oxygen of the ore in some way not yet definitely known, gradually removed the greater amount of the carbon from the casting. It has always been a scientific conundrum how a solid, iron oxide, surrounding another solid, a
No. 35. C
A M C I
piece of white iron, could remove from the latter its carbon when neither of them melts nor mingles with the other. Whether some of the oxygen from the ore penetrates the iron and burns out its carbon or whether the carbon of the casting itself migrates is not yet definitely settled. Certain it is that the carbon is gradually removed from the casting, from the surface first and with increasing length of time from greater depths.
No. 390b. P
S D O L
The photomicrograph also shows that this casting was not fully annealed.
In European practice malleable iron castings are still malleableized in this way, i. e., by burning out the carbon. The castings are made as thin as possible and the annealing in “packing” (iron ore or mill scale) is continued for from one to two weeks. At the expiration of this time the castings have a white, steely fracture which is entirely unlike the fractures of malleable iron castings which are made in this country. Photomicrographs of such malleable iron show few or none of the black spots which No. 35 exhibits, and analyses of castings annealed in this way give very low results for carbon.
While in this country the Reaumu
r process of annealing is not followed, a “packing” of ore or scale is generally used. Some use an inert packing such as sand, and as first mentioned, some use no packing at all. Really, one of the main purposes of the “packing” as now used is the prevention of warping of the castings in the pots while annealing. The annealing temperature
M C I W P A C H B R R P A
is not so high as in Europe nor is the annealing continued so long, but when packing is used for the shorter time only, some surface carbon is removed and the carbon throughout the center portions of the castings is precipitated in the coke-like form which is known as “temper carbon” to distinguish it from graphite which is shown in photomicrograph No. 35. To the eye, then, fractures of such castings show black centers and white rims. They are known as “black heart” castings and these form the bulk of the malleable cast iron made in this country.
F B H I
Note the white rims and black coke-like interiors. The majority of American malleable iron is of this “black heart” variety.
We may say, then, that there are in general three varieties of malleable cast iron: the “all black” which is annealed without “packing,” the “black heart,” annealed in “packing” and the most common kind in this country, and in Europe, but very rarely here, the “whiteheart” from which practically all of the carbon has been burned during the “anneal.”
Comp
arison of photomi crograph
s No. 35 and No. 30 given on page 181, will show at once one of the reasons for the much greater malleability of malleable cast iron. While the total carbon present is very nearly the same in the two irons, the difference in physical form causes great difference in the malleability of the two. In the gray cast iron, No. 30, the carbon is crystalline and in the form of long brittle flakes which cut
M C I S W P N . 2 A C T
A N . 1 L O A .
through and separate the grains of iron. Thus “planes of cleavage” are formed which make the alloy unable to resist severe shock and cause it to be anything but malleable. It is not so with annealed malleable cast iron. Here the carbon is in the form of small pellets which are imbedded among the grains of pure iron, the malleability of which is not seriously impaired largely because of the continuity of the “pure iron” structure. A second reason for the ability of malleable cast iron to withstand shock is that in the burning out of the carbon of the outer portions of the casting very small cavities are left. These allow the surface to become considerably deformed and battered under successive shocks without great strain on the casting itself.
Nothing has been said so far concerning one trait of all of the irons and indeed of most metals and alloys which are used for casting purposes. This is the tendency to “shrink” during the solidification and cooling of the metal of the casting. On account of the freezing of the outer portions of the casting before the metal of the inside, there must result certain hollow places or cavities after the inside metal has cooled unless some channel is kept open through which fluid metal can pass inside to keep cavities from forming. We will not here go into the matter of shrinkage with its great worry to the molder nor the ingenuity and strategy through which he produces castings without shrinkage cavities. One of the methods taken to overcome the trouble will be explained in the chapter on Cast Steel which is to follow.
There is, however, another type of shrinkage—that exhibited by the contraction of the entire piece of metal as it gradually cools after solidification. This presents a rather curious and interesting case.
It is well known among founders and pattern makers, that gray cast iron shrinks during cooling about ⅛ inch per foot, white iron ¼ inch per foot and cast steel ⁵⁄₁₆ inch per foot. That is, a bar cast exactly one foot long will be found when cold to be ⅛ inch short if of gray cast iron, ¼ inch short if of white cast iron and ⁵⁄₁₆ inch short if of cast steel. The patterns have to be made larger than the castings desired to allow for this shrinkage.
But, during annealing, white cast iron loses one-half of its ¼ inch per foot shrinkage and the resulting malleable cast iron is found to have a net shrinkage of but ⅛ inch per foot which is the same as that of gray iron.
It appears that the precipitation of the temper carbon expands the bar throughout to practically the same dimensions which it would have had if flake graphite had been allowed to precipitate through slow cooling, as is the case with gray cast iron.
This is cleverly taken advantage of by manufacturers of swivels of malleable iron, such as those shown. The inner portions are separately cast first and thoroughly cleaned after which they are imbedded in another mold. The outer portions are then cast around them, shrinking so tightly upon the inner portions that they cannot be turned at all. However, upon annealing they loosen enough that they can readily be turned yet remain tight enough that they cannot be separated.
Malleable iron from which the carbon has not been removed can be hardened and given a steely fracture by sudden cooling from a red heat even if it has previously been annealed. Decarbonized malleable iron, also, can readily be recarbonized by the cementation process. These characteristics are often taken advantage of for the manufacture of tools from malleable iron. Hammers, wood working chisels, gears, etc., are quite largely made. Where they are sold at a cheaper price than the better steel tools and without misrepresentation, there can be little objection, but sometimes they pass for steel.
Ofttimes malleable iron castings are made in what are known as “permanent molds” of iron. They are really “chilled castings.” Annealing of these is accomplished in the regular way. Such castings have very smooth and beautiful surfaces but as the iron molds have high first cost they can be used only for castings for which the sales warrant the expense.
While much less malleable than is wrought iron or mild steel, annealed malleable cast iron has considerable malleability. It will resist great shock and can be severely battered and bent without breaking. It has about 75 per cent or more of the tensile strength of mild steel and because of the cheapness of its castings the malleable
iron industry has developed wonderfully. About a million tons of this product are produced here each year.
Naturally malleable iron castings are used where a material with properties intermediate between cast iron and steel will suffice. Such are castings for railroad cars, for reapers, binders, and other agricultural machines, pipe fittings, and the cheaper grades of tools.
CHAPTER XIII CAST STEEL
We have seen how primitive man hunted and fought with no implements and weapons better than clubs, bows and arrows, and stone hatchets, and how his wife cracked and ground the corn between flat rocks or in mortars of stone. In the succeeding “Bronze Age” we found ornaments, idols and tools being made of copper or the copper alloy, bronze. It was only after the next great advance that we found man utilizing iron for his purposes of civilization. This metal, which with us is so common, was in those days very expensive, so much so that it could be used only for purposes of war and as the gifts of kings.
But the world was traveling fast and it was not long before the iron-carbon alloy, steel, was produced. Even so, many hundreds of years elapsed before the present wonderful age was ushered in through the great inventions of Henry Bessemer and the Siemens brothers. And while fine steels for swords and tools have had an incalculably great influence upon the development of the human race, it was the mammoth production of Bessemer and open-hearth steel which permitted its general use as a material for construction of ships, bridges, buildings, and for railroads, that made this the “Age of Steel.”
Speaking in terms of the power house, it is also the “Age of Cast Steel.” Twenty-five years ago the manufacturer and power house man were quite content with their “saturated” steam temperatures and pressures. With cast iron valves and fittings their plants were well equipped.
But the world did not stand still. It became known that by heating the steam out of contact with the water in the boiler it lost the moisture which it carried and became dry and then could be charged
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Castings for use on steam, ammonia, water lines, etc., must be of very closegrained metal and require much larger risers than castings for less exacting service.
with as much additional heat as it was desired to give to it. This “superheated” steam, of course, would do more work and it had also certain other advantages which the oldfashioned “saturated” steam had not.
But while cast iron fittings gave satisfactory service up to temperatures, say, around 450° F., they faltered when forced to work under the new conditions which meant decidedly higher temperatures and pressures. And, too, the repeated heatings and coolings which were often necessary, disclosed a disadvantage previously unknown—a so-called “permanent growth” of the cast iron which was attended by loss of strength, and altogether it was soon found out that when superheated steam was to be used, higher types of materials were advisable than those which had been used under old conditions.
S C A O
Superheated steam has rapidly come into general use. Some of the new locomotives and most of the modern power plants are now built for as much as 200° superheat, i.e., a total temperature of approximately 600° Fahrenheit.
Valves and fittings of cast steel not only are the articles “de luxe” for such service but they have come to be considered the necessary articles and their advantages have only fairly begun to be appreciated.
Though our most august scientific societies are proposing and debating upon systems of classification which shall include and satisfactorily define all of our ferrous metals, a satisfactory one has not yet been evolved, and, considering the intricacy of our ferrous
metallurgy and the discoveries which are being made almost daily, the outlook for a strictly logical classification is not yet flattering.
With “Cast Steel” our metallurgical nomenclature is again faulty. Before what we now call the “steel casting” was known, crucible steel was poured into ingots, “forged” into tools just as it now is and often went under the name “Cast Steel” to distinguish it from the contemporaneous material, wrought iron. So to-day we buy many tools and implements which bear the name cast steel, which we know to have been forged in bringing them into their final shape.
But it is not these which we mean by the term, cast steel, but rather those steel products which get their final form by being “cast” from a fluid condition into a mold. These are what are rapidly coming to be understood when the term “cast steel” is used.
Satisfactory metal for steel castings may be made in any of three or four types of furnaces, but, as was suggested before, the making of molds for castings is a fine art, as is the preparation of the metal which is to go into them. Further, the making of that special class of castings which are to withstand water, steam or air pressure is a very different thing from the making of steel castings for other purposes, and this is too often forgotten.
For the former are necessary particularly close-grained castings, free from flaws or spongy spots. Under the great pressures applied such defects would certainly allow leakage.
F F C S
Whatever the method of production of steel for castings the metal is poured into molds to receive its final shape. Because of the intensely high heat of the steel only sands of great refractoriness (resistance to heat) can be used as material for the mold. White silica sand is such a material and is generally used, mixed with enough clay and molasses-water to give it “bond.” While molds for some steel castings are made in “green” (i.e., undried or unbaked) sand, baked molds are preferred for fine finish and surest results. After the making of the molds in the usual way they are sprayed with very
finely powdered white sand or quartz mixed with a little molasseswater. They are then thoroughly dried in an oven.
Cast steel shrinks during cooling even more than malleable iron and the pattern and mold must be made to allow for this. Upon the freezing of the surfaces of the casting with consequent attainment of rigidity, the interiors, which freeze last, may have cavities unless means for avoiding them is provided. For this purpose heavier pieces, which later can be cut off, are cast upon such parts of the casting as tend to have “shrink holes.” These may be likened to receptacles filled with fluid metal, which being larger than the parts of the castings which they “feed,” hold excess metal in fluid condition until the casting itself has become solid throughout. Such are usually called “risers” or, in Europe, “lost heads,” and the molten metal in them flows down into the interior of the casting and fills the shrink holes which are forming. Not only must the risers be large enough that the metal in them is the last to solidify but they must be built high enough above the casting that sufficient pressure is exerted on the steel entering the shrinking parts to make its entry sure.
G S C T C M
(Magnification 60 diameters)
Baked molds, of course, are comparatively rigid. As the risers which stand on top of the flanges and other high parts of castings aid in resisting the natural shortening of long castings during and after “setting” of the metal, there is great liability that the still red-hot casting will crack somewhere along its length. It is therefore necessary to loosen with bars the sand of the mold as soon as the metal of the casting has set, particularly between the risers, and to break out the sand of the core inside, around which the shrinking metal might crack were the sand left in its hard packed condition.
After the casting is shaken out from the mold, it is cleaned and the risers cut off either by sawing or with the more modern oxyacetylene torch flame.
O T S C
S teel cas tin gs sho uld be an nea
G S C A
led in order to “refine,” i.e., make finer the grain of metal and to equalize “strains” which are set up in the castings during cooling. Coarse grain and internal strains tend to make the castings brittle. No such extended annealing, however, is necessary as is the case with malleable cast iron, for no divorcing of carbon from the iron with separation of free carbon is possible. The castings are carefully heated to a temperature of about 1600° or 1700° Fahrenheit and allowed to cool slowly.
After annealing, they are cleaned and excrescences removed by chipping, after which the castings are tapped, drilled or otherwise machined according to the purposes for which they are intended.
C S V , S S , D - T U S S
While more costly in manufacture and installation than are those of cast iron, valves, fittings and other cast steel products are, so far as we now know, practically permanent. Their notable shock resisting quality is well shown in the following table which is reprinted from page 188.
It is to be noted that while malleable cast iron far surpasses “semisteel” in this property, though their tensile strengths are ordinarily somewhere near the same, cast steel, in turn, offers more than six times the resistance of the malleable iron to shock and has nearly double its tensile strength. It is this great strength and resistance to shock, heat and pressure, with freedom from “permanent growth” under alternate heatings and coolings that make cast steel such a valuable material for the many purposes for which castings are today employed. Millions of steel castings annually find varied application.
P S
M B L
In modern power houses and other commercial steam and hydraulic installations particularly, steel castings have come to be the materials usually specified and approximately the only ones which satisfactorily serve under the severe conditions of to-day.
Undoubtedly the first steel castings were poured from crucible steel, though we must remember that the crucible is a melting and not a refining furnace. This was only natural. In the crucible the metal can be made very hot and fluid, and if of proper composition and properly “killed” crucible steel makes very fine castings. Crucible steel castings, however, are not in as fortunate a position as are other products of this high grade
P L - L
material. Tool steels ordinarily bring high enough price that there remains a profit to the manufacturer though his manufacturing cost is necessarily high. In the steel casting line, however, there is much keener competition and crucible steel has had considerable difficulty in maintaining its place. It seems to be a matter of price alone.
Open-hearth steel is very largely used for steel castings, more than two-thirds of all made in this country being of this material. About one half of these are poured from basic open-hearth metal, and the other half from acid metal. It is generally considered that the product of the acid-lined furnace is a little freer from over-oxidation.
T S T - O - O -
F S C
Open-hearth steel cannot generally be as hot and fluid as are the steels made in other types of furnaces. For this reason as well as because of the larger size of the usual open-hearth furnace, small castings are not generally poured from this steel. It is for steel castings of considerable size and where there are sufficient orders to warrant a steady and large output that the open-hearth has its place. True, smaller open-hearths are now built, some of them of only two or three tons capacity, but, in general, the standard open-hearth for steel castings is of fifteen tons or more capacity and of the style of the open-hearth furnaces which were described in Chapter IX.
In their proper sphere they are highly satisfactory, but they are “inelastic” in that they must be run continuously day and night and should not be allowed to cool until extensive repairs are imperative.
It was mentioned that in the open-hearth process the furnace is always hotter than the metal which it contains and that the heat which can be put into the steel is limited by the ability of the refractories of which the roof and side walls are made to withstand melting. In the Bessemer process the metal is hotter than the furnace because the heat is generated by combustion of certain of the
metalloids contained in the metal itself. As metal for castings must be very hot and fluid the Bessemer process is very satisfactory for the making of steel for castings.
It has, also, the advantage of “elasticity.” The supply of metal is practically continuous and one furnace can make from one to eighteen or even more heats on day turn only and be shut down for the night turn or longer and then started again without such loss as would result from the shutting down of an open-hearth furnace with regenerators.
A 30– B O H F T
The overflow from the ladle into the pit is slag.
For the making of metal for steel castings, very small-sized Bessemer converters are used which make from one to three tons of metal per blow. Some converters of as little as one-half ton capacity are being used. While some are of the “bottom-blown” type already described, the majority are what are called “surface-blown” or “side-blown.” In these, from four to eight round tuyères, about one and one-half inches in diameter each, pierce the brick or ganister lining just above the surface of the bath. They slope downward a little toward the bath so that when the converter is tipped to its upright or blowing position the air blast will strike the adjacent edge of the metal and blow across its surface. This three or four pounds per square inch of air blast keeps the metal in circulation, meanwhile burning out its silicon, manganese, and carbon, just as it does in the larger bottom-blown converters. Surface-blown give hotter metal than do bottom-blown converters and very fine steel castings are made from their metal. For these converters, which are practically all acid-lined (i.e., with silica or clay brick or ganister), metal low in phosphorus and sulphur is regularly drawn from a cupola specially run for the purpose.
The remaining recognized type of furnace for steel for castings is the comparatively new electric furnace.
