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).
The life and performance of road springs, comparing different designs and the impact of hydraulic shock absorbers.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 16\7\ Scan199 | |
| Date | 23th October 1929 | |
| [Handwritten: X7410] To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}5/AD23.10.29. [Handwritten, boxed: X5410, X7410] ROAD SPRINGS. The life of road springs have increased enormously with the fitting of hydraulic shock absorbers. Of all the Phantom and 20 HP. cars in service with the hollow rolled plates and non-machined leaves, we have only information as to three springs having broken since hydraulics were standardised. Two of these were 20 HP. and in one of these cases the car did a considerable milage before the hydraulic dampers were fitted. We can therefore say, that the rolled leaf un-machined spring has adequate life as long as it is used with hydraulic shock absorbers. The other advantage that may be claimed from the spring leaf machined all over, is that it gives better bedding at the leaf tip and prevents digging in. The worst offender for digging in was the cantilever as it had short leaves with abrupt stiff ends. Even so the American Co. state that they have no difficulty in obtaining a good bedding with their hollow rolled leaves provided they "exercise" the spring in a machine to show up the high spots. With the S.S. springs we have tapered ends to the leaves which is an advantage, as the flexibility thereby | ||