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).
Tests and modifications for compressed air systems and water-driven hot-well pumps.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 61\3\ scan0174 | |
| Date | 15th September 1931 guessed | |
| -2- Claudels also say that if there is no oil in our compressed air it would be advisable occasionally to allow a few drops of oil to go into the trip valve chamber. This could be done by sweating a screw-down grease cup into the air pipe line between the tap and the pump. The attached sketch shows how we should like the pump rigged up, with taps to vary the pressure on the pump and on the regulator valve. The regulator valve should be mounted close to the second tap, which represents the carburetter. We should like this regulator stripped and a sketch made of its internal arrangement, as we have no drawing. For tests, we should like to know how its capacity varies with the head against which it is pumping, and what is the effect of the air supply pressure on this. We do not consider it necessary to measure its air consumption during these preliminary tests. We should also like to know the accuracy of pressure regulation at the carburetter, whether much air passes into the petrol (the discharge should be submerged) and whether the exhaust air contains petrol. The construction would appear to guard against the latter possibility. Water-driven Hot-well Pumps. This is a problem which urgently requires investigation, for possible incorporation in machine designs now going through. We propose to use the same scheme here as for the oil-driven petrol pump. The hot-well pump on the engine will draw water from the header tank or water pump inlet pipe, and pump it down to two coupled pumps in the hot-well. One is motored by the water pressure and drives the other, which drains the hot-well. The first two pumps should have their non-return valves removed. The delivery from the second pump can pass into the hot-well return pipe, so that the last two have a common return to the header tank, and the hot-well pump is also primed. The non-return valve on the hot-well pump will then do for the whole lot. The inlet and outlet unions on the pressure-driven (or second) pump should be so chosen as to rotate the hot-well pump the right way, i.e. with its non-return valve on the inlet side. The second pump will need a starting groove cut in its casing. Tests should consist of adjusting the head on the third pump, and plotting brief curves of quantity pumped against speed of the engine driven pump. The pressure in the high pressure pipe can also be plotted on the same base. Print att. RG{Mr Rowledge}/Tsn. | ||