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).
Visits to Seitz & Co. and Saurer factories to inspect light metal omnibus coachwork construction.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 117\1\ scan0033 | |
| Date | 17th August 1935 guessed | |
| (2) I accordingly arranged to visit on my way to Austria the coachbuilding works of Messrs.Seitz & Co. at Kreuzlingen with Dr Schultess of l'Industry de l'Aluminium to see some of this work in progress, and also the factory of Messrs. Saurer at Arbon, where it was anticipated we should see part of a consignment of ten light metal motor buses ordered by the Swiss Bus Authorities. This type of bus is in regular service on the routes over the mountain passes. Construction at Kreuzlingen was proceeding on both all steel and all aluminium 30 seater omnibus coachwork and I was told that the latter was 10% more expensive generally on account of material cost, but was 600 kilograms lighter, the steel body scaling 2400 kilogrames and the light metal type 1800. The light metal framework is built up primarily on light section transverse steel members placed athwart the narrow frame of the chassis and is formed from extruded sections secured by rivetted joints generally, but auto-genious welding is also used where conditions require it. A special light alloy is used for the rivets which does not require normalising after the rivetting process. These bodies are semi-flexible mainly on account of their design, but partly also due to the method of attaching the panelling. The edges of the panel are folded over at right angles and fixed by screws to the framework to form concealed joints. The construction taken as a whole is not suitable for private cars but some part of it may form the basis for such a development. In the case of the Seitz bodies, the various sections of the framework were supplied bent to the required shape dictated by the bodywork design, but this is not essential, and the bending can be done by the coachbuilder himself, as at Saurer's where there is sufficient capacity to deal with it. At the Saurer Works we were unfortunate as the last postal body had already been delivered before our arrival but we were able to see types of the various extruded sections used for the different parts of the framework, and numerous examples of the sheet metal pressings produced for the more interchangeable parts of the bodywork at their works | ||