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 to a supplier regarding the failure and performance discrepancy of two experimental springs.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 52\2\ Scan238 | |
| Date | 13th August 1930 | |
| c. Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 13th. August 1930. BY16/G. Messrs. Thos. Firth & Sons Ltd., Norfolk Works, Sheffield. For the attention of J. {Mr Johnson W.M.} Wortley-Fawcett, Esq. Dear Sirs, Referring to your letter of the 6th inst. (ref. Spring Dept. HWP/AR/649) written in reply to ours of the 10th ult. (ref. Hs {Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} /Rm. {William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 3/MJ) the matter has been referred back to me by our Experimental Department. Of course, it must be clearly understood by both of us that the springs are purely experimental, and further that the re-conditioning of the springs is a small issue, which we are quite prepared to meet, but personally I am not satisfied with the wide difference between the two springs, one having run roughly only 50% of the life of the other. The spring was returned intact to you at my suggestion, as from a casual examination of the broken top plate I gained the impression that there was something peculiar in either the treatment of structure of the top plate. The facture was distinctly peculiar and appeared to carry upon its face evidence which would lead to the reason for the failure being fairly quickly explained. Obviously the admitted high stress by itself is not a sufficient explanation for the difference of performance between the two springs. If you have one section of the broken top plate available, which includes the original fracture, I would like you to return this to me, so that we could give the matter further consideration from this end. We agree that the clip plate design needs | ||