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).
Letter from Vandervell Products Ltd. regarding engine bearing performance and development.
Identifier | ExFiles\Box 115\2\ scan0491 | |
Date | 22th July 1939 | |
1020. VANDERVELL PRODUCTS Ltd. TELEGRAMS & CABLES: STEELBAK, LONDON. DIRECTORS: C.A. VANDERVELL, M.P. FOSTER. TELEPHONE ACORN 2251/2. MANUFACTURERS OF PRESSED BUSHINGS, STEEL BACKED BABBITT & LEAD BRONZE BEARINGS. Patented WESTERN AVENUE, PARK ROYAL, W.3. STEEL BACK BABBITT LINED BEARINGS HARD ROLLED BRONZE BUSHINGS GAV/ER. 22nd July 1939. W.A. Robotham Esq., Messrs Rolls-Royce Ltd., DERBY. Dear Robotham, Many thanks for your letter of the 20th instant, and it is a great pleasure to have your reaction to John Palm but a thousand pities that Alex Taub could not be present as we might have had a more interesting discussion. However, we had a private 'sitting' with Alex and covered a considerable amount of ground in a very short space of time. I am pleased to hear that the bearings are performing satisfactorily up to 6,000 miles and hope to be in a position, in a very short time, to offer you bearings with a figure of merit greater than 50% over the bearings you are now running. A complimentary set of connecting rod bearings, with the new arrangement, are now being made by hand and by our own standard of 2,000 lbs. per sq. in. at 4,500 revs. on your present bearings, would give you about 150 hours. The new bearings, if we make them properly, will be indestructible at 300 hours, which we consider outlives the life of any engine. Your achievement at Brooklands was an excellent example of what really can be done and also a fine example to the motor Industry as a whole that we are at last waking up, although to me, your comments [Logo: THE SOCIETY OF MOTOR MANUFACTURERS & TRADERS LTD] | ||