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).
Letter from Cleveland Graphite Bronze Co. discussing servo lining, new bearing material, and Clevite clutch facings.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 129\4\ scan0140 | |
| Date | 16th February 1938 | |
| THE CLEVELAND GRAPHITE BRONZE CO. BUSHINGS BEARINGS WASHERS DETROIT OFFICE, 7-169 GENERAL MOTORS BLDG. MAIN OFFICE & PLANT 880 EAST 72ND STREET CLEVELAND HARD ROLLED BRONZE STEEL BACK - BABBITT LINED February 16, 1938. Mr. W. A.{Mr Adams} Robotham, Rolls-Royce Ltd., Derby, England. Dear Mr. Robotham: Many thanks for your kind letter of February 1st and for the information as to your Servo lining. I am enclosing herewith a memorandum from our Chief Engineer, which is self-explanatory. If you will furnish the data he requests, we shall be pleased to advise you further. I am glad to hear that you have arranged to send us a quantity of your aluminum-tin alloy. Immediately upon receipt, we shall be glad to run our tests and advise you as to results. We are making fine headway with the new bearing material to which I referred in my last letter. We are not yet ready to announce it but just as soon as we are we will send you samples for test. As to the metallic clutch facings: As I have already explained to you, we can secure lower production costs with our Clevite material (from molten metal) than with powdered metal. We sent you some segments of Clevite several months ago but have not heard the result of your tests. Over here, we have definitely established the superiority of Clevite over the powdered metal wherever the clutch design permits the use of Clevite, - that is, where we can attach the segments to the fly-wheel and to the pressure-plate. We are doing a lot of intensive work with Chrysler and Borg-Warner in connection with the latter construction and have already developed a much cheaper and much better design of driven-plate than shown on the prints heretofore sent you. We are also working on many other schemes to reduce the cost, so as to enable the lowest-priced automobiles to adopt this construction. We have already established that a 9-1/4" clutch with this construction will out-perform a 10" clutch with fabric facings on the driven-plate. With best regards to yourself and to all my friends at Rolls-Royce, believe me, Very sincerely yours, THE CLEVELAND GRAPHITE BRONZE COMPANY. Ben F.{Mr Friese} Hopkins, President. BFH:S | ||