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).
Material and hardness testing of shock damper pads, comparing Delco's copper-plated parts with new Nitro Alloy steel versions.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\V\2January1931-April1931\ Scan046 | |
| Date | 3rd March 1931 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} From Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} c.c. to Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/Hdy.{William Hardy} c.c. to Hy.{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} c.c. to Ss.{S. Smith} c.c. to Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c.c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} ORIGINAL Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 5/MJ. 3. 3. 31. X235. SHOCK DAMPERS. With reference to R1/M24. 2. 31. We note that you refer to Kelmet pads in the Delco shock absorber piston and axle connections. The dampers we have here have these parts made in steel, copper plated, which we think may have confused you. We understand from Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} that Delco's copper plate the parts in order to get a better wearing surface as it allows the part to work harden before it picks up. We have tried copper plating from time to time for this purpose but have not had much success with it. We are testing out these pads in Nitro Alloy steel as we think that they have a hard time and have already shown signs of wear on our tests, even in case hardened nickel steel, after some 50 hours running on the pump. Fortunately, the axle connections we have here have spring loaded balls in the same way as we have. We hope these parts were not omitted in the set we sent to you. The Rockwell hardness of the pads on the Delco shock absorber piston was 54 but we made our pads 60. Nitro Steel will, of course, be harder than this. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} | ||