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).
On battery ignition distributor wear, comparing stainless steel points to a preferred combination of brass inserts and a nickel rotor blade.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 61b\2\ scan0161 | |
| Date | 1st April 1932 | |
| X6120 R.{Sir Henry Royce} From Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst. c. to SE. Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to RE. R.{Sir Henry Royce} c. to SY. De. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst.S/MA.S. 4. 32. BATTERY IGNITION DISTRIBUTOR. We have observed that the wear on the H.T. distributor sparking points and H.T. rotor blade on our ignition distributor due to the burning action of the sparks is considerably more than that obtained with either Delco-Remy or Lucas. This wear is we consider accentuated by the use of stainless steel for these parts on our distributor. Originally these points were all nickel but we changed over to S.S in order to prevent corrosion due to the nitrous oxides present. Now that our distributor is very well ventilated we can go back to a combination of materials which gives us less wear. Our experiments now show that brass distributor inserts and nickel rotor blade is the right combination. We have run a distributor so fitted for 500 hours on our bench rig and compared with our present standard arrangement we get 30% less wear and the points remained in a much better unoxidized condition. This combination of sparking point metals is the same as used now by Delco's and other ignition apparatus manufacturers. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Wst. | ||