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).
The failure of friction plates on the 40/50 HP chassis low inertia damper and proposed remedies.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 14\2\ Scan129 | |
| Date | 11th August 1931 | |
| E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. Mx.{John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer} X7010 BY6/G.11.8.31. X634. 40/50 HP. CHASSIS - LOW INERTIA DAMPER. We have had one of the friction plates break in service. You will remember that early this year a similar breakage occurred, and you submitted the matter to R.{Sir Henry Royce} in your memo E.1/M.{Mr Moon / Mr Moore} 28.1.31. and in R's reply (R.1/M.1.2.31.) he suggested that the cause of the breakage was end movement of the crank under torsional forces, and although you had made a number of suggestions R.{Sir Henry Royce} did not select any one of these as being sufficiently good in his estimation for use. Now that we have broken one in service, it would certainly appear that we ought to make a definite move, and we would like to know exactly what you would suggest we should do. After R's reply, which left the matter more or less in the air nothing further was done, but it is evident that the matter should now be pushed to a definite conclusion as to what was the cause of the failure and a remedy introduced as quickly as possible. The one failure which we had on test was undoubtedly due to the part being fitted up wrongly owing to the forward half of the flywheel being twisted 45°, then the forward half bolted up to the rear half of the slipper flywheel. This resulted in the forward half of the flywheel pressing on the top of the bolts holding the timing gear to the driving centre. There were ample signs of this having occurred when I had the part dismantled, as I could not believe it was due to ordinary inertia effects produced by severe braking conditions. To obviate this mal-erection we lengthened the bolts by having a portion projecting beyond threaded end, sufficiently long to prevent the front flywheel entering its recess. At the same time we introduced machined rivets instead of the taper headed screws for holding together the two halves of the driving centre and clamping them on the friction plate. These points are illustrated on the print enclosed. BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} | ||