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).
The development of aluminium bodywork construction for passenger cars, comparing its advantages to steel.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 117\1\ scan0034 | |
| Date | 24th September 1935 guessed | |
| (3) Aluminium bodywork construction is also being developed in this country notably at Messrs. Short's of Rochester, and at Dennis's of Guildford. I feel personally that this is a development we cannot afford to neglect as if it were possible to perfect the technique of producing a suitable all aluminium passenger car body it would possess advantages which might put us in a much stronger position in the future conflict which it seems will inevitably take place with the mass produced steel article. At the present time our estimates for obtaining all steel bodies at a practical price are based on an irreducible minimum of bodies in lots of 50, and we gravely doubt whether even this figure will hold good. Moreover with the limitations on workable gauges of material the tendency for the steel body is to be on the heavy side. In the case of the aluminium I feel that we have a material which is more fluent and capable of greater variations of style, and producible on a practical basis in smaller quantities. It should also result in a lighter body at the same time free from the rusting which is the curse of steel bodies, and its overall rigidity although necessarily about half that of a steel body may still be sufficient for our requirements. I have arranged with Messrs. l'Industrie de l'Aluminium, subject to your approval that we can send our bodywork engineer over to Switzerland at any convenient time to go more fully into the methods of construction employed, and I am proposing also that visits should be arranged to the English firms dealing with this construction. Attached herewith is an envelope showing illustrations of some of the bodies, together with other applications of this technique. We should be glad if this could be circulated to those interested. ATT. E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} | ||