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 a supplier discussing a price reduction for Millenite brake drum castings.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 120\1\ scan0121 | |
| Date | 18th July 1933 | |
| COPY OF LETTER BRAINTREE. Essex. 18-7-33. Messrs. Rolls-Royce Ltd., DERBY. Dear Sirs, Mr. Whitfield reports to us that you are not satisfied with the price of 38/- per cwt. which we charge you for the Millenite Brake Drum Castings, and has asked us to write you as to what reduction we could make. The sample drums which we originally submitted to you and which you tested thoroughly were made from metal melted in the high frequency furnace, and when the first order was placed you asked the writer to give an undertaking that supplies should all be made in every respect like the samples, and this has been strictly adhered to. We have looked carefully into the costs of all the drums we have supplied to you made in this way up to the present, and find that at the price of 38/- we are not making a profit. During the last year, however, we have been making Millenite by a different process which is considerably cheaper, and all the brake drums which we make with the exception of yours are now made in this way. We have carried out repeated tests ourselves and can find no difference between the metal made in the high frequency furnace and our present process. The chemical analysis and physical results given on test bars are exactly the same, and we can detect no difference in the wearing qualities. We enclose you herewith a copy of an entirely independent report of a test of this material made in the laboratory of one of the largest motor manufacturing firms in the Midlands. If you decide to allow us to make your Brake Drums in this material our price would be 34/6d per cwt. Yours faithfully, For LAKE & ELLIOT LTD. W. T. Lake | ||