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).
Reduction of weight for the RR. E.16 Direct Drive Nose by changing the thrust bearing.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 42\1\ Scan137 | |
| Date | 11th February 1926 | |
| TO R.{Sir Henry Royce} FROM AJS. V3829 AJS1/M11.2.26. C. to CG. RG.{Mr Rowledge} " HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} RR. E.16. DIRECT DRIVE NOSE. This dept. has received an instruction from your-self through Mr. Elliott, to reduce the weight of above to between 28/30 lbs., "the thrust bearing being the one originally tested." The part underlined is a little ambiguous to the writer as the bearing originally tested (No.215.) was the one incorporated in the design made by Derby, and weighing 42 lbs. in report on RR. E.16. weights. The design incorporating the heavier but smaller bearing was abandoned by us. In view of - (1) The difficulty we shall have in reducing the weight to that given in the first para. above, and (2) that bearing No.215. has stood up to a 30 hrs. thrust test in each direction, (when only 10 hours is the official test), and (3) that the next size smaller bearing No. 214. contains only one less ball per row of the same size, It is suggested that we use bearing No.214., and get a reduction in shaft dia. of 5 mm., as well as a reduction in weight of the bearing itself. Will HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} kindly test one of the No.214. bearings similar to original test of No. 215. for RR. E.16. The No.214. bearing makes the shaft almost exactly the same outside dia. as the Curtiss D.12. at points of approximately similar bending moment. You might think it worth while trying a bearing still one size smaller, - No.213. which has the same number of balls as No.214., but we believe the races will be too weak. We are working on this job to the exclusion of everything else, and incorporating bearing No. 214. AJS [STAMP] 13 FEB 1926 HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} [END STAMP] | ||