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).
Use of harmonic balancers in American cars and proposing a design for a 3.5-litre engine.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 137\4\ scan0384 | |
| Date | 27th August 1931 | |
| 8634 To R.{Sir Henry Royce} From Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls} c. to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to S. Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls}7/MJ.27.8.31. X.634. X.5010 HARMONIC BALANCER (DAMPER). We do not know of any American car with its timing gears other than at the front of the engine. Buick, Marmon, and Cadillac use a harmonic balancer. Buick drive the auxiliaries by gear but Marmon and Cadillac employ a roller chain. All these cars are 8 or 16 cylinder. When Buicks made a 6 cyl. the fan pulley provided most of the inertia of the damper driven through rubber. An article we have found on the subject says that a suitable inertia for an 8 cyl. 3½ litre engine is a steel disc 8½" diameter by 1/4" thick. We think, in view of what other manufacturers do, we should try this type of balancer on a 'China' engine. Very little more inertia would be on the nose of the crankshaft than is now standard on the 25 HP. and we would be able to get an idea of the necessary inertia and damping for a 6 cylinder engine in which the torsional vibrations are far more violent than in an 8 or 16 cylinder. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/H.Grylls. | ||