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).
Acceptable gaps for wheel flanges and communications with Dunlop and Goodyear.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 159\1\ scan0076 | |
| Date | 5th April 1921 | |
| X3725 ps. from BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} C. to LP.{Mr Lappin} BY6/P5.4.21. X.3458 FRONT AXLE - REAR HUB & BRAKE. X.4050 RE DUNLOP WHEELS SUITABLE FOR X.3726 STRAIGHT SIDED TYRES. With reference to the question of what is considered to be a reasonable gap where the two ends of the loose flange meet, the Goodyear Company inform us that the minimum figure they consider workable is .375". This, of course, involves large open gaps and I therefore took the matter up with the Dunlop Company because I considered the gap in question unnecessary, providing reasonable workmanship had been used in producing the flange itself. In order to obtain some definite data as to the minimum gap which was actually allowable, I instructed the C.C. to obtain a set of wheels having a gap between .125 and .150" with the object of handing these over to your Department to be run on the experimental cars and closely watched as to whether the action of the wheels resulted in a closing in of the gap during a prolonged period of service. In the meantime I have instructed the Dunlop Company in supplying wheels of this type, to limit the gap to a minimum of .250" and a maximum of .375", as I consider that the minimum of .375" called for by the Goodyear Company is unnecessarily wide and intended to cover poor workmanship. The Dunlop Company are selecting rims which will come within the range I specify in supplying any orders for these wheels in the near future. Any flanges they are at present supplying are produced from rolled bar, supplied by the Goodyear Company, and it is probably due to variations in the rolled section that the large limit the Goodyear Company call for is demanded. In view of the foregoing it is very important that one experimental car should be fitted up with the complete set of wheels I have ordered, and preferably the car so fitted should be the one which is likely to do the most mileage. BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} | ||