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 discussing lubrication, material choice, and other design considerations for a petrol pump.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 17\5\ Scan077 | |
| Date | 2nd June 1931 | |
| E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} C. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} X7460. BY6/G.2.6.31. LeC. 2897 - PETROL PUMP In looking at the sliding portion of the petrol pump scheme, it would appear that there is no method of lubricating these working parts. It appears to me that it is necessary to have a number of holes passing through the crankcase top and the lower half of the pump casting to permit oil vapour to reach the parts in question, and even then one would imagine that some holes through the barrel would also be necessary so as to expose the little piston at the top of the guide underneath the fibre washer to get some oil vapour on its surface by direct contact with the oily atmosphere. I do not quite see the reason for proposing that the washer between the diaphragm and its parts and the piston, being made in hard fibre, as you will appreciate this is very liable to shrink or expand in accordance with the humidity of the atmosphere in which it is working. Some connection between the lower half of the diaphragm and the crankcase or atmosphere certainly appears necessary, apart from the question of lubrication, but the latter feature seems to me to be a matter for further thought. We note that you suggest the steady can be left off the cross control tube carrying the magneto control shaft, but judging from what we have seen on cars we have tried at the Works, we should doubt that this is a workable proposal. BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} By | ||