Rolls-Royce Archives
         « Prev  Box Series  Next »        

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).
Design and experimental testing of crankshaft dampers.

Identifier  ExFiles\Box 138\1\  scan0043
Date  7th June 1932
  
8634.

To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer}

c. Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager}

E.8/HP.7.6.32.

re Crankshaft Dampers.

We have had some discussion with "R" on the position as regards Crankshaft Dampers, and as a result he has defined what he would like us to do to settle up the design of the damper most suited to our needs.

In the first place he would like us to fix upon the largest size of damper flywheel that we can conveniently use. He would then like Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Grylls to make a series of experiments at all speeds at which periods are encountered, including the major critical, to determine what is the most useful quantity of friction for each speed.

The matter will be then referred back to the design to see how this varying quantity of friction can be provided. We did urge the point that an increase of friction from say the half speed period to the major critical was considered undesirable until actually the major critical speed itself was reached, but this "R" thought could be confirmed experimentally.

R.{Sir Henry Royce} also raised the question of whether it was considered desirable to use dry or oily dampers, and what was the most desirable material. The difference between the friction at rest and the friction in motion was discussed relative to cotton duck, fibre, bronze and steel, etc. and R.{Sir Henry Royce} pointed out that it might be preferable to introduce some fluid friction as in the Lanchester damper, in which the quantity of friction increases with motion. We did suggest to him that we could make up a Lanchester damper in which the plates were flexible enough to be anchored without slack, and this he thought might be tried.

We have in hand at the moment a similar proposal, using just oily plates of bronze and steel with a view to doing away with the use of the cotton , as we
  
  


Copyright Sustain 2025, All Rights Reserved.    whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble
An unhandled error has occurred. Reload 🗙