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).
Material choices for engine design, comparing cast iron and aluminum, and the potential use of Austenitic liners.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 43\4\ Scan333 | |
| Date | 2nd July 1931 guessed | |
| (2) We might however at some future date decide for cost or some other reason that we ought to adopt cast iron, in which case this particular engine design will be quite suitable. We are making everything to the minimum dimensions so as to save weight wherever possible in case cast iron has to be adopted. We do not think however that it would make a vast difference to the cost, and as the English iron castings are not usually as thin and as accurate as American castings, (the same may be said of forgings and pressed steel work,) we should not recommend until we are obliged to abandon aluminium for cast iron though we know there are several advantages in the cast iron construction, especially as regards expansion. We hope however in the near future that Austenitic liners will be obtained either as centrifugal castings or tubular forgings. The advantage of this would be that they might be hardened by the nitrohardening process, and their expansion would be so near that of the aluminium piston and crankchamber that the fears and trouble from the expansion would be very much less. (BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} has sent word by HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} that austenitic castings are available.) R.{Sir Henry Royce} | ||