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).
Testing a revised assembly procedure for the Phantom III oil cooler to eliminate the need for bedding the union faces.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 131\5\ scan0041 | |
| Date | 15th December 1937 | |
| To RHC.{R. H. Coverley - Production Engineer} 1114 Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Std.20/JH.15.12.37. We understand that the Phantom III oil cooler has a certain amount of time spent on it in bedding the union faces to a flat plate in order to ensure a water tight joint when assembled in its aluminium case. Since we have insisted on Messrs. Marstons finally machining these faces as the last operation on the cooler (even after testing) in order to ensure that these faces are flat and true within .003 - .004 we think it should be possible to fit these units direct to their casings and rely on the give of the top plate and the aluminium washers to take up the slight discrepancy which is permitted. Further, in the case of a unit leaking it would immediately be noticed on the unit test since it would be an external water leak. Will you therefore please build up a number of production units (say 10) and without any bedding of the union faces (where they seat on the case) being done and check up on whether any water leaks result. If the result is successful we think this procedure should be adopted in future. If not we would like to know how accurate the union faces are so that we can take the matter up with the makers if necessary. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Std. | ||