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 discussing the pros and cons of manufacturing versus purchasing bakelite insulation mouldings.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\F\May1921\ Scan7 | |
| Date | 1st May 1921 | |
| To R.R. of America Inc. from R.{Sir Henry Royce} (For the attention of...) Copy to CG. EFC. WD.{Mr Wood/Mr Whitehead} ORIGINAL R8/G4/5/21. (2) X 3513 RE BAKELITE INSULATION. We thank you for your information (OY3/G9/4/21) regarding the Damard Lacquer Company of England. We had just got into communication with these people. I quite agree with your conclusions regarding the purchasing of such mouldings, but the difficulty we always have in England is to find a well managed concern specialising for trade purposes in such articles. It therefore forces us to make many things in our Works which we might purchase. At the same time, if the processes are simple, it is often a great convenience, and saves much clerical work to produce such articles in one's own factory. We have always found this to be so with reference to aluminium and other castings, drop forgings etc. This would apply to a parent company more so than a company specialising in manufacturing only a single model. You will observe that the chief difficulty in these particular mouldings appears to be the production of the moulds. Now these would have to be made specially in much the same way, whether we made the mouldings ourselves or we had them made in a factory specialising on the work. The same may be said regarding die castings and drop forgings. In most of these operations we have found that we can do the work very profitably and satisfactorily compared with purchasing. Apparently the great advantage that we might obtain would be that these mouldings and their expensive moulds were made in the same factory for both the English and American (Contd.) | ||