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).
Visits to Hudsons and Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company regarding axle, suspension, and bearing technologies.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 173\4\ img177 | |
| Date | 24th December 1938 | |
| -2- I spent half a day at Hudsons and then had to return to Cadillac to try and persuade Seaholm to sell us a V-8 with the flexible flywheel. Hudsons told us - (1) That for chunking the backlash between the axle pinion and crown wheel must be less than .003" and that then the slack in the gearbox is not of much importance. (2) Involute splines as opposed to square splines are considerably cheaper and easier to make a good fit. (3) In their new suspension the axle was originally allowed to move sideways and swivelled on the front of the radius rod. This was to eliminate wheel fight. The front springs are about 5 1/2" initial deflection. (4) In this axle construction the radius rod has to be very much stronger than one would think owing to the backward loads caused by irregularities in the road. (5) The axle can turn in the springs which themselves therefore do not take any twist. (6) They also use rubber between the spring and the axle for tyre noise. Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company. I saw Ben Hopkins at Cleveland and he is of the opinion that Cadmium has no future, firstly because of corrosion which he says applies equally to copper lead bearings; and secondly because the lack of Cadmium will soon raise the cost to 30 dollars a lb. At the moment they are working on improving white metal by rapid quenching, and prefer strip bearings to cast bearings owing to the greater ease of operation. They say, however, that centrifugally castin, and rapid water quenching gives better bearings than those made by the method we use. Their strip moves at 15' a minute and is solidified 5 inches after the casting. Hopkins has given the full details of their "brew" for both Cadmium and white metal bearings. | ||