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).
Manufacturing defects in road springs, including improper bending and flatness.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\D\April1920\ Scan30 | |
| Date | 21th April 1920 | |
| To WOR.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} from R.{Sir Henry Royce} Copy to G.I. BN{W.O. Bentley / Mr Barrington} WD{Mr Wood/Mr Whitehead} SA HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} ORIGINAL X 2628 RE ROAD SPRINGS. With reference to road springs, I understand that on examination of these the manufacture has been found somewhat defective. A special point I noticed was that the end of the shorter plates has been bent excessively and did not follow the curve specified on our blue print. This results in a very hard place at the extreme end of the plate, and is the real cause of the excessive wear at this point, and of the tendency of the springs to squeak in use. This defect should be cured as soon as ever possible, as it will result in dissatisfaction to the users of our cars. I should also like to point out that we always expected that our springs would be ground on both sides of the working plates, and that the steel would be flat on each side so as to avoid extra heavy bearing areas along the edge of the plate. This want of flatness is also another reason for springs requiring frequent lubrication. Both these practices are, we believe, adopted to make it easy for the spring to have an appearance of the leaves fitting together well. I am aware that the difficulty of grinding the plates may be increased by the nib that has been introduced to stop the plates from turning round on the central bolt. We had no knowledge of the use of this nib, and it was not shewn on our drawing. If anything further is needed than the single clip(contd) | ||