Abstract: A titanium-high carbon steel laminate composed of two outer layers of titanium with the steel in the middle. The steel being heat-treatable to very high hardness and the outer titanium layers providing strength and corrosion resistance. The laminate is bonded together by a brazing process. The brazing or filler material may be of various compositions. This laminate is invented for the purpose of knife and similar cutting tool manufacture.

Abstract: A direct-drive hydraulic control valve having a valve spool mounted in a spool bore and variably positioned in the bore to control a flow of pressure fluid from a source to a controlled device, shown as a hydraulic cylinder. The valve is driven by a reversible electric D.C. torque motor of the incremental stepper type having an eccentric output shaft that projects into a central opening in the valve spool and is engaged on its opposite sides by elongated drive pins that are movably mounted in longitudinal bores in the opposite end portions of the spool. Each drive pin engages a ball that is seated in the end of the longitudinal bore in a pressure chamber at the end of the spool bore, forming a check valve, and drives the spool through the ball, which normally is held in place by high pressure fluid in the end pressure chamber.