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).
Procedures for forging, testing, and producing valves from special valve steels.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 54\3\ Scan221 | |
| Date | 15th June 1928 | |
| Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} X4634 BY8/G.15.6.28. VALVE STEEL Referring to the special valve steels, and particularly the matter of forging in relation to same, I have placed on order, as you will see from BY4/G.15.6.28, the necessary material to carry out the forging work, but I think it is necessary in fairness to myself to put it on record that no steel which varies from our standard product is put in hand in these Works for production requirements or even considered for same until complete forging experiments have been carried out to demonstrate that we can produce the same results from the steel as those quoted by the makers. The idea in obtaining valves from the makers was as much as anything to show that we were playing the game with the makers. This particular procedure has been adopted on every special Valve steel tried out up to the moment, as so far as I am aware not a single valve in an experimental steel has ever been forged by ourselves in the preliminary experiments, but immediately the experiments have demonstrated the qualities of the material, and it has been suggested for production, then the fullest consideration has been given to the forging qualities of the steel before we have committed ourselves, and that this is so, you yourself must be fully aware in view of the work which was carried out after trying the Silchrome valve in the first instance before I agreed that we were in a position to give the same values in a Valve where the material was produced by Firths and the Valves forged by ourselves. We actually bought two or three series of valves during the time Firths and ourselves were gaining the necessary experience to produce the valves satisfactorily. I am still of the opinion that the economical way of dealing with an issue of this kind is to try the material in the first place as produced by the makers, and then when we have satisfied ourselves that it is a right material to adopt to spend time and money to ensure the forging operations being carried out with a maximum of efficiency and reliability. Upon receipt of the material from Firths I propose to make a certain number of tests in order to ensure that our forging gives the necessary physical characteristics in test pieces and then to turn my attention to the production of the Valves. BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} Br | ||