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 The Packless Gland Co. regarding an order for Bellows and Shaft Seals, discussing allowable movement and potential failures.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 151\2\ scan0217 | |
| Date | 14th March 1933 | |
| Telephone: SUNBURY 406. Codes: BENTLEY'S, WESTERN UNION. Telegrams & Cables: PACKLESS, SUNBURY COMMON. THE PACKLESS GLAND CO., LTD. MAKERS OF THERMOFLEX Bellows and Shaft Seals. Windmill Road, THERMOFLEX WORKS. Sunbury, Middlesex. DIRECTORS: M. {Mr Moon / Mr Moore} PAYNE. W.A. PAYNE. W.F.F. MARTIN-HURST. Your Ref: Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Les.14/Kt. W.M.H/GN: March 14th, 1933. Messrs. Rolls-Royce Limited. DERBY. Dear Sirs, We thank you for your letter of March 9th and for your Order No. F. {Mr Friese} 100773 for 8 complete Units. We are putting these in hand immediately. With regard to the price we propose to put these through as samples, and to charge them at cost. We hope that this will meet with your approval. We are afraid that at the moment we are unable to give you any figures showing the allowable movement when the bellows are extended, as on principle we never extend the bellows but only compress them, and therefore have no data on which to draw. These figures can, however, be quite simply obtained, and when the units which we are making for you are complete, we will test one of them and give you all the information we can. Generally speaking, the allowable movement is that movement which can be obtained without stretching the bellows beyond their elastic limit, in other words, only such extension is permissible which, when made, does not increase the original free length of the bellows. We are very sorry that we did not raise this point before, but from the first drawing which you sent to us we were unable to guess how the assembly would be made up. We hope that you will not have any trouble from bellows breakage, but while we do not wish to alarm you, we shall not be surprised if failures do occur. | ||