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).
Production difficulties and potential solutions for chassis propeller shafts.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 94\4\ scan0137 | |
| Date | 11th December 1936 | |
| To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} & Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} From RHC.{R. H. Coverley - Production Engineer} c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. to Ey. RHC.{R. H. Coverley - Production Engineer}8/EJ.11.12.36. CHASSIS PROPELLER SHAFTS. Considerable difficulty is experienced in the production of Propeller Shafts owing in the first place to the fact that the swaged portion of the tubes being eccentric to the main tube body, and secondly owing to the variation in sectional thickness which gives trouble during the final balancing operation. The matter has been taken up with Mr. Bernard of Tubes Limited, and he visited our Works a few days ago to inspect the last batch of tubes which was delivered and accepted that in some instances the out of truth of the swaged portion was much too great and requested us to return those affected. At the same time he promised to see what could be done to overcome these troubles in their Works, but he was of the opinion that they could not give us the standard of accuracy we insisted upon and stated that the only solution to the problem was to use butt-welded tubes which would mean that the plain tubes would be drawn to finer limits with regard to sectional thickness and the swaged portion butt-welded electrically. It is understood that the majority of Propeller Shaft Tubes are now being produced in this manner and that from tests conducted the strength of the /weld is greater than that of the drawn tube. Mr. Bernard offered to supply half a dozen for trials, which will go forward unless we hear to the contrary. Since Mr. Bernard's visit we have returned a further batch and got Messrs. Hollingworth and Shaw to visit Tubes Limited, and upon further investigation Tubes Ltd., now considerthat they can reduce the inaccuracy of sectional thickness from .015 variation to .010 which will be an improvement but they confirmed on the samples that were examined of the welded type tube as used by other Motor-Car Manufacturers that with the adoption of the butt-welded tube concentric accuracy of the swaged portion could be maintained to within .002 to .005 and sectional thickness could be maintained to the same figure of accuracy. We should therefore be pleased to have Hm{Capt. W. Hallam - Head Repairs}'s comments on this matter. RHC.{R. H. Coverley - Production Engineer} | ||