Investigation into failures of the Wraith exhaust system's corrujoints.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 8\8\ 08-page83 | |
| Date | 17th April 1939 | |
| To: HY. {Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} DA. {Bernard Day - Chassis Design} RBC. LH. {Mr Haworth} WRAITH EXHAUST SYSTEM Corrujoints ------------------- During the running of 27.G.VI the corrujoints between Exhaust Manifold and downtake pipe blew out. As it was not certain whether the failure was due to stretching of the three securing bolts or collapse of the corrujoint, or both, a set of new joints was fitted, in conjunction with a set of carefully measured bolts. We are now in a position to say that the trouble is due to collapse of the corrugations of the joint under the combined effect of heat and pressure. The collapsing of the corrujoints appears to take a considerable amount of mileage, say, 2 to 3,000, therefore it is not a simple matter of tightening up the bolts after an initial run. The experience on 27.G.VI has been confirmed on experimental cars, including 8.B.V which has been running in France. Furthermore, there have been complaint cases of loose and missing bolts in the horizontal part of the system at the joint near the gearbox where a corrujoint is used. GWH {George W. Hancock - Head Chateauroux} also reports loose bolts at the Manifold to downtake joint on cars coming in to N. We are now trying a set of annealed corrujoints on 27.G.VI. In the meantime, HY {Tom Haldenby - Plant Engineer} is asking for corrujoints to be compressed before fitting, so that the corrugations have an initial set of .005. MX. {John H Maddocks - Chief Proving Officer} | ||
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).