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).
Discussion paper on the topic of varnish insulation for the electrical industry.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 24\2\ Scan295 | |
| Date | 26th March 1928 | |
| -8- It will be generally admitted that the subject of varnish insulation is of great interest and importance to the electrical industry, and as there must be many of your readers in possession of a fund of useful practical information on this subject, it is to be hoped that they may yet be encouraged to take part in this discussion." L.F. Fogarty. M.I.E.E. Ruislip. Mar. 26th 1928. "A free and open discussion would seem desirable, as suggested by Mr. Fogarty in your issue of the 6th instant, but whether this is likely to be obtained is another matter. Two of the three principally interested parties, namely, the varnish manufacturer and the user, naturally hesitate to broadcast information which is the result of costly hard-earned experience and as often as not is regarded, more or less, as of the nature of a secret process or trade secrets, consequently the remaining interested party, the impregnating-plant manufacturer, has full scope and an open field to exploit the situation to full advance, and incidentally befog the whole question in his endeavour to create the impression that his plant is the most important item in the whole process of impregnation. In point of fact, it is the least important of all, depending as it must upon the materials to be handled and the ultimate result aimed at. The plant is the "means to an end" and not vice versa, yet it would seem that all the inherent disabilities, physical and chemical of the materials under treatment, and those of a psychological nature in personnel, would immediately be overcome by the adoption of various gadgets and contraptions put forward by the plant manufacturer. The forming of insulation by impregnation may be considered analogous to scientific cooking, the essential factors being: the material, the recipe, the cook. It will be appreciated that the most expert chef cannot produce a good omelet from a bad egg, however perfect his cooking utensils, and likewise good insulation depends primarily upon the varnish and not upon the plant. Solvent extraction and recovery, condensers, and the like, have been referred to in connection with the plant without discrimination as to the materials under treatment. As to the necessity of these, it only need be said that the drying of oil varnishes is not due to evaporation (as in the case of alcohol varnishes) but to the oxidising action of oxygen in the air whereby a coherent film of oxines is formed. Thus the solvent and/or diluent for oil varnishes | ||