Internal memorandum on spring design, discussing issues with friction, squeaking, and reverting to older manufacturing practices.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 80\2\ scan0093 | |
| Date | 5th March 1920 | |
| To HS. {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from-R. {Sir Henry Royce} -2- It will be noted that we shall then be reducing the stress in the springs and be obliged to carry more steel unless we adopt some other modification in the springs. Several methods should be tested of locking the plates one with the other(such as is provided with a reed and groove pattern) instead of the present method of cutting the slot in the plate, which we all agree is undesirable. When we introduced the thicker plate we were under the impression that less friction was desirable, and this would avoid the necessity of greasing the springs, whereas we now think more friction is desirable, and we are obliged to grease these springs because they squeak. We therefore want the Works to revert to our old practice with the rear spring as our present one seems less desirable than our former. Do not, therefore, order up more material than is absolutely necessary, and let the spring makers be advised that at once we shall require the ends tapering in thickness because of their practice of bending the points down and getting the small surfaces at the ends overloaded. R. {Sir Henry Royce} | ||
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).