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).
Critique of design choices for the Cardan shaft, flywheel, starter gear, governor, and throttle valves.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 182\M21\ img065 | |
| Date | 29th October 1920 | |
| To BJ. A WOR.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} from R.{Sir Henry Royce} -2- RG{Mr Rowledge}/029/10/20 Contd. the Cardan shaft with its full torque of 11,000 ins. lbs., and in the event of the throttle being closed, it would be turned by the over-run of the tank thus reversing the drive on these studs. We should not use such a construction. It will be noticed that the flywheel has been fitted on a serrated driver which would have a small amount of slack, even such slight slack is better avoided in the case of a flywheel on an internal combustion engine. The starter gear has been transferred further from the engine. We think that the overhanging casting is hardly suitable for taking the starting torque unless the starting shaft is capable of floating, so as to give a balanced drive of pure torsion. We have not criticised the governor itself as we are assuming it is taken from another engine, but we think that the arrangement of governor drive gear requires some modification. We fear that the various castings will not come out sufficiently central for the single serrated drive to be quite satisfactory. One might use two serrated couplings, and the ball bearing nearer to the bevel pinion or an Oldham coupling. We also think it is almost impossible to make a satisfactory job of the tapped blind holes in the aluminium casting, many of which are semi-blind and very short, and should be modified. The throttle valves are very unsuitable for governing as the suction of the engine is likely to create a lot of friction on the large throttle drums. We take it that the governor is only intended to shut the throttle in case the engine runs away or accelerates quickly due to the removal of the load, such as the releasing of the drive. Does the governor have to operate against a foot control, or against a hand control ? Would it be possible to use a certain amount of inertia in the governor to (Contd.) | ||