SWEDEN WELCOME
Page 50
Page 51
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
.R.T.E MEMBERS
By W. Roper Lindsay, M.I.R.T.E.
DURING the visit of 50 members of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers to Sweden, they were entertained to dinner at Gi5teborg's Palace Hotel by Svenska LasttrafikbilAgareforbundet, known as S.L.F. (Swedish Road Haulage Association), which has a membership of 9,247 operators, controlling over 15,000 goods vehicles, buses and taxis operating throughout Sweden.
Speaking in Swedish, followed by a word-perfect rendering in English by Mr. Sten Mellgren, Editor of " Lastbilen," third largest motoring journal in Sweden, Mr. Ceve BystrOm said that Swedish operators and members of the 1.R.T.E. had a common problem. International collaboration in solving the difficulties besetting that most progressive and virile of all civilization's activities—unfettered road transport —was one of the major aims of S.L.F.
"The war cut' short our efforts to cement friendly relations and practical co-operation with neighbouring countries in the transport field," he said. "Now we want to reopen negotiations. We cannot teach you much; you have learnt such a lot and progressed so far in the development of transport under wartime restrictions. But we are glad—heartily glad—to see you. We bid you welcome to GiSteborg, which we know as 'Little London.'
Your biggest task is to oppose the stifling of your industry, your efficiency, your livelihood by nationalization. Ours is to fight the blanketing effect of protected rail competition."
Mr. Hans Anderson. Goteborg county representative, requested that members should make an annual visit to Sweden to exchange views. opinions, ideas. " We hope to visit you next year," he declared. "Maybe you can help us to solve our problems. They are very much the same as yours. We have lost our long-distance traffic. We want it back. We are restricted—we have free transport and scope only within a radius of 60 kiloms. We have petrol, but we want, above all, tyres. We want your rubber. We have our own tyre factories. We can make our own fabric—rayon—for we have a very large and advanced staple fibre industry.' ,Mr. Anderson said that in Goteborg, a city of over 350,000 inhabitants, there were 1,350 traffic permits in 1939. During the war these were reduced to 750. Now there were 1,050.
"We are regulated by numerous commissions and committees: bogged down with Government edicts, controls and ' verboten,'" he continued. "But throughout the war, under appalling conditions of shortages of fuel, rubber and spares and skilled mechanics, we have kept our national transport serviceable. Only by greatest pressure on the Government have We been able to secure rates that barely show a profit to our operators."
Mr. Mackenzie Junner, Editor of "The Commercial Motor" and President of the I.R.T.E., said in reply that Swedish operators might be able to teach British vehicle users a lot. They had to learn the hard way during the war. To such gootil account did British. vehicle manufacturers
master the lesson of necessity that even the German General Rommel admitted that British transport was superior to his own under wartime conditions of desert work.
" Now," Mr, Junner said, "with the threat of stagnation of design resulting from the nationalization that is facing us, we come to discuss with you our common problems, and particularly those besetting free operation of road transport and industry. Such discussions can do so much to benefit the cause of world peace by encouraging international contact and goodwill."
Having disembarked from the Swedish Lloyd m/v " Saga " on October 7, the party visited, the same afternoon, the 5,000-employee plant of Aktiebolaget Svenska Kullagerfabriken (S.K.F.) in GOteborg. The S.K.F. company's aim —every load to roll on ball or roller bearings—recalled to some of the members unkind memories of the two-day voyage from Tilbury, which could not be described as of the millpond category.
Mow Skefko Bearings are Made Adhering closely to the original design, first patented by Sven Winquist in April, 1907, Skefko now produces ball, roller, and needle-type bearings intended to carry every conceivable load. They range from microscopic radio control-shaft bearings to huge propeller-shaft bearings used by the great transatlantic liners. , Charcoal-fired blast-furnace steel from the company's own Hofors Bruit steelworks, 150 miles north of Stockholm, is brought to the Goteborg plant in the form of tubes for the manufacture of the races, bars for the large balls and medium-sized rollers, drawn wire for the small balls and rollers, cold-rolled strip for the cages, retainers and roiled rings, and forged and pressed rings for the outsize roller bearings.
Outer and inner rings are turned in four-spindle Acme automatics. Outer rings are face-turned and chamfered: inner rings are face-turned, chamfered and bored, The next operation is the turning of spherical raceways in the outer rings. Immediately afterwards an on-the-spot check is made of the position of the spherical portion in relation to the side faces.
Scrupulous Attention to Accuracy Throughout the processing of both ball and roller bearings in all sizes, it was noted that inspection and gauging were carried out fully at each operation, followed by more exacting piece-by-piece inspection in central, controlledtemperature bays on every floor of the plant's modern fivestorey buildings. Temperature-compensated, three-finger dial gauges are used to record deviations down to 0.001 mm., and all gauges used by the machine operators are removed and checked twice in each shift.
When bearing serial numbers, marks, etc., have been stamped, the rings are hardened and tempered, and again inspected for distortion. After face-grinding and another check for width and parallelism, they are " Brindled " for hardness, then externally ground on centreless grinders on machines of Skefko's own design.. Next, the inner ring is internally ground, raceways are ground in this ring and, finally, inner and outer rings are polished.
Balls are blanked in presses from drawn wire at the rate of 100 to 180 per minute. After removal of the burr, they are ground between carborundum discs. Then a first check is made for sphericity. Following hardening and tempering and another inspection, they are finish-ground, visually
inspected and then dial-gauged for sphericity to limits of 0,0002 mm. Next, polishing is done by tumbling and another inspection is made. Balls are automatically graded in batch limits of 0.001 mm.
Final assembly of balls, rings and cages—Abe cages pressed in four speedy operations from low-carbon steel strip—is accomplished by quick-fingered female operatives using simple hand jigs. A final overall inspection checks the outside diameter, width and internal clearance.
From the Hofors blast furnaces and rolling mills—with an annual capacity of 120,000 steel ingots—Skefko supplies 12 factories and 38 affiliated companies scattered throughout the world. During the war, small but indispensable shipments of precision bearings were made in British "little ships" running the gauntlet of the German Kattegat blockade. They took on 5-10 tons at the tiny port of Lysekil, and sped over the North Sea at 35-40 knots. Before the war, Skefko exported 85 per cent, of its iotal finished products. Now, hampered by fuel, transport and labour-shortage difficulties, the company is striving to cope with immense export and home demands.
Ford Aspirations in Sweden The second day of the trip opened with a sight-seeing tour of Goteborg arranged by Mr. Fallettlus, of AS FalIenius and Leffler. Afterwards the party visited Motorver ken, one of the most modern and best-equipped Ford dealer plants.
In the afternoon the Swedish Ford organization was the host. Mr. Broendum, works director, recalled the company's comparatively small start in 1924 in temporarily leased premises, the expansion to its own modern assembly plant in the free port of Stockholm in 1929, and the contemplated doubling of capacity to 23,000 sq. m. floor space to take care of an expected 12,000 C.K.D. units by 1950. At present the labour force is greatly attenuated, but the company hopes to have 700-800 workers by 1955.
" We have in Sweden 100 Ford main dealers and over 200 sub-dealers." said Mr. Broendum. "Before the war we handled 10,000 cars and trucks and 2,000 tractors per annum. These are figures we hope greatly to exceed. Sweden wants right away up to 100,000 cars and trucks. We expect to see her pre-war registration of 250,000 vehicles increased to well over 350,000 within the next few years. But we do ask exporters in England to study our tastes, our needs. No longer shall we want to look to Germany for a large share of our automobile imports—that portion is now your market."