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).
Paper on the design and lubrication of hypoid rear axles presented at the Society of Automotive Engineers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 114\1\ scan0076 | |
| Date | 11th January 1937 | |
| REAR AXLE 1015 PREPRINT. -- Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Automotive Engineers at the Book-Cadillac Hotel, Detroit, Michigan, Jan. 11 to 15, 1937. Printed to stimulate written or oral discussion. Subject to revision. All papers presented at meetings of the Society are the exclusive property of the Society, from which permission to publish this paper, in full or in part, after its presentation and with credit to the author and the Society can be obtained upon request. The Society is not responsible for statements or opinions advanced in papers or discussions at its meetings. HYPOID REAR AXLE DESIGN AND LUBRICATION BY W. R.{Sir Henry Royce} Griswold* Packard Motor Car Co. INTRODUCTION The recent widespread adoption of hypoid rear axle gears brings about, quite naturally, a widespread interest in the nature of hypoid gears, their behavior, the peculiarities associated in the design of axles in which they are incorporated, their behavior in service, and the nature of the lubrication requirements. By peculiar circumstances, the author has been associated with the design and development of hypoid gears since their very inception, in fact, the author's experience began with the design of the very first hypoid gear axle of which there is any record. Some twelve or thirteen years ago, after many attempts to improve on the spiral bevel gear, the Gleason Works succeeded in making a pair of hypoid gears. Mr. F.{Mr Friese} E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} McMullen brought that first pair of gears to Colonel Vincent, Vice President of Packard, who, immediately recognizing the inherent merits of the hypoid principle, proceeded to design a special axle to accommodate this form of gearing. At that time the Model T Ford used straight tooth bevel gears, and spiral bevel gears had been in general use by other manufacturers for a comparatively few years. A year or two later Packard adopted hypoid gears in regular production and have not made any spiral bevel gear axles since. Research, development and testing work conducted through the years since, much of it in collaboration with the Gleason Works, and more than ten years field experience with Packard cars has yielded much which has become, to a large extent, a part of the technical knowledge in our great industry. Like many of the other complex mechanisms with which we find ourselves in daily contact, much of this knowledge is incorporated in existing successful designs which are the products of an evolution during which changes and improvements have come slowly and sometimes painfully, rather than as classified technical knowledge in the minds of engineers. For this reason those who are now only recently become associated with the design, manufacturing, or service phases of hypoid axles, will have much to learn in properly evaluating the importance of specific items and their relations to one another, and naturally, there exists much divergence of opinion and many contradictory notions. This paper, therefore, is presented to cover as comprehensively as possible all of the important experience obtained in the last ten or twelve years but as concisely as will be permitted by the subject matter. Naturally, emphasis will be given to those elements which may appear to be repetition or to which some of you may presume to have complete knowledge. Up to within this past year the use of hypoid rear axles had been confined to but a few manufacturers, and so many of the influences, commercial or otherwise, which had to do with their use, were absent or were easily handled by the individual manufacturer. Packard, who has for more than ten years been using hypoid axles exclusively in regular production, has enjoyed the unique position during that entire period (until the introduction of the Packard One Twenty) of building cars in only the higher priced brackets which were distributed to a clientele who * Chief Research Engineer | ||