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).
Letter from Joseph Lucas Ltd regarding product reliability, contact breaker points, and distributor brush issues.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 40\2\ Scan174 | |
| Date | 29th March 1927 | |
| Copy From: JOSEPH LUCAS LTD 29th March 1927 2. Of the total defects of 37, you will be interested to learn that we have, so far, not had a single claim for replacing contact breaker points. For your information, the total defects to date, work out at .092% of Sales. We hope you will agree with us that these figures indicate that our modern production is quite a reliable piece of apparatus, especially when you take into consideration that it is in the hands of inexperienced people. We trust that this information is of the character you require, but we shall much appreciate it if you will treat it as strictly confidential. With regard to the general design of the machine, should we be called upon to produce any Magnetos for you, the writer is unable to think of any single point where it would be advisable to modify our standard production. We should, however, take more particular care than we are able to do with the very large out-puts we handle, with machining limits and inspection of materials, and the various processes throughout the manufacture. The type of contacts referred to in this letter is one of our latest developments which has been one of the most successful modifications we have ever introduced. Unfortunately, at the time we submitted our 6 machines to you, we had only just got these new Points developed, and had not, at that date, sufficiently wide experience on the road to justify our fitting them to your machines, but almost immediately afterwards we fitted up one or two Phantom Rolls with our Magnetos and these contact breaker points, which have given every satisfaction and still appear exactly as new. In fact, we honestly believe that our latest contact breaker points should outlive the life even of a Rolls Royce, as we have run continuous bench tests in the full retard position equivalent to 350,000 miles at 60 miles per hour, before the points have shown appreciable burning. The one other trouble we believe you experienced with the initial machines we sent you, was a liability for the distributor brushes to track somewhat. As already explained, since that date, we have undertaken the manufacture of our own distributors and we are able to thereby to maintain a closer watch on the quality of the rubber and ensure a uniform hardness and ageing. | ||