Over-the-counter Crankshaft Exchange Service
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IN these days, when it is extremely difficult to keep vehicles on the road because of the general shortage of spare parts, it is refreshing to be brought into the presence of a supply of Vandervell and Glacier replacement bearings of a value approaching the £12,000 mark. In addition, there were 1.000 reground crankshafts waiting their turn to be handed over the counter on an exchange basis.
Such was our introduction to the Phirnix Crankshaft and Bearing Co., Ltd., Uxbridge Road, Rickmansworth, on the occasion of a recent visit to the company's works. Some idea of the extent of the concern's business may be gathered from the fact that over 5,000 crankshafts and 4,7013 connecting rods were dealt with last month.
Whilst the present works, which are doomed under the local town-planning scheme, are fairly niodest in floor area, the equipment installed in them is of the most modern type, and designed for the specialized work which is undertaken.
The crankshaft grinders, of which there are eight, comprise machines of Churchill, Cincinnatti, Landis and Norton makes. Soon to be added is a Landis hydraulic machine for dealing with the largest types of crankshaft at present used in road-vehicle nil engines.
Setting-up a Crankshaft For grinding the crankpins, the shaft is set up in eccentric workheads, a dial indicator, located on the bed of the grinder, being used to check the concentricity of the pins with the central axis of the grinder, and parallelism of the shaft, as a whole, with the bed.
The machines used for grinding the journals are, of course, of the concentric-centre type. Owing to the ovality of the pins and journals of a worn shaft, the operative has to obtain a mean figure on the indicator before he starts grinding operations. The wheels used are Norton. No. 603, grit M, blue, and the finish obtained is excellent.
Because of the large amount of bearing work which is undertaken, it has been found necessary to install five Forwell remetalling plants. The maintenance of the correct temperature of the bearing metal is of first importance, and this is assured by arranging thermostatic control of the gas supply.
A check is kept on the accurate working of each thermostat, each instrument being checked against a special thermometer every morning before pouring is begun.
An important side of the company's business is concerned with boring-in-line main bearings, and on this work alone 10 Cuthbert machines are kept busy. With this type of equipment, and with the use of a special micrometer, tolerances can be kept as low as .00025 in. At the present time the number of jobs going through these machines averages 20 per day.
AU Machines Motorized Every machine tool in the works is driven by its own motor, a system which permits of the most convenient location of the equipment without reference to line shafting. A battery of connecting-rod boring tools is kept in continuous operation, the fine feed, and the moderately high speed of the boring bar, giving results closely approximating to those obtained with diamond-tipped tools.
So far as cylinder-block reconditioning equipment is concerned, we noticed a Kitchen and Wade hone, two Barnes hones, a number of Van Norman borers, and a Thomsen vertical borer. A large stock of liners is carried, so that cylinder bores may be restored to their original diameter if it be not desired to go to the limit in oversizes.
Stocks of pistons are generous, as the concern is a distributor for Hepolite, Wellworthy, Specialloid and Covmo makes. Mr. Tolton, the head of the undertaking, gave us the impression that he could satisfy practically every requirement in respect of the classes of work which we have outlined. Although a "while you wait" service is not a slogan of the concern, such a request would not by any means stagger the management.