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).
Design, benefits, and experimental requirements for engine balance weights.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 14\2\ Scan119 | |
| Date | 19th May 1931 | |
| X7010 Rg.{Mr Rowledge} } FROM R.{Sir Henry Royce} HS.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} } c. Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. Bv. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} R2/M19.5.31. BALANCE WEIGHTS. X.634 X.5010 X.7010 Referring to Hsl/MJ16.5.31, we are pleased to hear that these are vigorously being pushed forward by the Aero Dept. and they ought to help quite definitely the "R" Schneider engine both as regards wear and stress in the bearings and also have some effect on keeping the ends of the rods from hammering sideways. As regards the requirements for the car, and since we cannot fully balance the whole of the revolving masses, E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} and I have made some rough calculations which suggest that the 8 balance weight scheme, or the Chrysler scheme, under these conditions is better than the 12 weight scheme because for a given mass of balance weights we can help more the central and end bearings. (These bearings show at present the greatest distress), and by reducing the load on them the crankchamber stresses and deflections will be reduced. We are also convinced that this system of balance weights will help to prevent the flywheel being disturbed by the inertia forces of the end pistons, and we are sure that these forces are what is disturbing the flywheel (rather than whirl, in the ordinary sense that it occurs in long shafts). In conclusion we realise the difficulty you have in making experiments without being supplied with the designs for the pieces needed for the experiment. We had thought it was possible when we suggested an experiment that you could more easily have done so than appears to be the case. Therefore in future we are not expecting you to carry out the experiment we suggest unless we supply you in most cases with the necessary drawings, but we do expect that you will then be able to push along vigorously until we are satisfied they them are of no value. In the case of the balance weights the matter was quite easy to modify the one already designed, of the 12 weight scheme to the 8 weight, which we pointed out. Cry. need not be anxious about the difficulty of finding the value of the half weights because the ordinary balance rig that the shafts are put upon will tell you when | ||