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 to Gordon Armstrong regarding failures of strengthened damper piston links and requesting new parts, casings, and drawings.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 152\1\ scan0367 | |
| Date | 26th June 1937 | |
| 1293 Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Les5/R.{Sir Henry Royce} 26th June, 1937. Gordon Armstrong, Esq., Waltham Works, Beverley, YORKS. Dear Mr. Armstrong, Thank you for your various letter, another pair of dampers and the pattern for the top cover. I am arranging for 24 castings to be made. Can you let us have four more of the strengthened piston links? We have, altogether, had four of these links break on our bumper chassis, the longest life being 2 hours. We have since run 25 hours with the strengthened link being 300 lbs ball pin load. Unfortunately, when one of the links broke it cracked the damper casing, so in order to complete our present 6 dampers we shall need a new casing. I am rather upset that our car - 6.B.IV - has not yet started its testing, after all your work in rushing the dampers it is unsatisfactory. Actually no time has been wasted as the dampers have never been lying idle, and the running on the bumper chassis is probably more important. If 50 hours is completed satisfactorily on the bumper, I think there should not be any mechanical failure on the road. It is lucky that we discovered the link failure before these dampers ran in France. Could you let me have a drawing of the original die cast orifice restriction damper as I want to be able to show why the latest damper costs such a lump more? Also, I should like a complete list of the damper specification for the figure of £4.10.0. for a set of four dampers, less connecting links. We have just been examining the pair of die cast .812 diameter hobbed nickel steel shaft dampers which have run 15,000 miles in France. These were set at | ||