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).
Final report on experiments with road springs, focusing on friction between the leaves and rear shock absorbers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 3\1\ 01-page186 | |
| Date | 1st April 1913 | |
| From Exp. Dept. Copies for: Mr Johnson Mr Royce Mr Spinney Mr Hadin Final Report on Experiments Nos. 224 & 189 Road Springs, friction between the leaves and rear Shock Absorbers. I enclose curves showing the amount of friction in the present rear inverted springs, they are to prove that it is possible to do away with the rear shock absorbers and arrange the friction between the leaves by putting them together dry as suggested by Mr Royce. These curves also prove that lubricating the leaves of a spring does not last any time, we have made a test especially on this and find that with a lubricated spring, for the first 500 miles the friction increases rapidly due to the lubricant breaking down on the spots where the leaves bed after this it increases slowly due to the rust. We have tried painting the leaves all over suggested by Mr Spinney but the paint acts as an excellent lubricant and we cannot get the friction we require. I should always recommend paint now in preference to grease and I believe it would be an advantage to treat our front springs in this way where we use a shock absorber as it is possible in these springs to get so much friction due to rust that it affects the comfort of the occupants of the car. I would also recommend it for the old type cars with shock absorbers. We have run a spring with painted leaves 6000 miles and the | ||