Weight reduction campaign for a Bentley crankshaft by machining holes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 85\5\ scan0026 | |
| Date | 26th April 1933 | |
| To RHC. {R. H. Coverley - Production Engineer} from Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} X217. Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 9/KT.26.4.33. BENTLEY CRANKSHAFT. We are having a lightening campaign on the Bentley. There is a considerable amount of unnecessary weight in the crankshaft. Will you please arrange to machine a crank to EB.39 having 1 3/4" holes through the journals and 1 1/4" through the pins and oilers to suit. We appreciate that the holes in the pins cannot be machined without using a boring bar because they overlap the web. However we think production will have to make some arrangements to do as we want. At the same time we should like your opinion as to the difficulty in the operation when you come to make the shaft. If it is possible to make one of these shafts from those at present going through, to these dimensions, it would push the job forward. There is a slight difficulty in fitting the oilers in the pin; the attached sketch shows one method of overcoming the trouble. Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||
From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).