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).
Urgent memo regarding the failure of B.60 bottom tappets during an endurance run and the need for a modified design.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 158\4\ scan0271 | |
| Date | 1st December 1938 | |
| 1360 & 1044 To HPS.{Horace Percy Smith - Experimental Factory Mgr} from Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Swdl.{Len H. Swindell} c. Hy.{Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} c. RHC{R. H. Coverley - Production Engineer}/VS.{J. Vickers} (Iron Foundry) c. Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/Jnr.{Charles L. Jenner} c. Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/Res. c. B/SS.{S. Smith} Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Swdl.{Len H. Swindell}1/MH.{M. Huckerby}1.12.38. URGENT. B.60 BOTTOM TAPPETS. After a short endurance run of several hours, two bottom tappets I/C (inlet) broke up and several others were badly cracked. The trouble appears to have originated on the base face and cracking up to the oil hole in the side of the tappet. In consequence Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design}/Jnr.{Charles L. Jenner} has issued a drawing FD.{Frank Dodd - Bodies}324, with the base thicked up and the hole deleted. We are anxious to continue our endurance and would like you to urge the making of the modified tappets FD.{Frank Dodd - Bodies}324, for this reason. This failure scraps the original type of tappets already instructed for the B.60 and B.80 units and tappets for these units should be held up pending a satisfactory run on the modified ones. In order to cover the engines already made we should like 3 sets making. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Swdl.{Len H. Swindell} | ||