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Passing Comments

25th July 1958, Page 38
25th July 1958
Page 38
Page 39
Page 38, 25th July 1958 — Passing Comments
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In Recessions Prepare for Booms

AS the result of their annual survey of the plans made by business concerns for new plant and equipment, the American McGraw-Hill Department of Economics arc giving certain interesting advice to American manufacturers.

It is expected • that sales will increase by 20 per cent. on the average between this year and 1961, and it is suggested that producers should plan ahead for this by the installation of new equipment and the improvement.of layouts in plants, warehouses and offices.

According to American Machinist, more than half of the machine tools in U.S. factories are over 10 years old. Replacement of any worn-out or obsolete equipment would mean material savings in operating and maintenance costs. Moreover this can be done more readily now before the economy is running full out, for machinery, parts, materials and labour are more readily available than they may be later.

• To wait for another boom would also mean paying higher interest rates on loans, whilst the costs of investing in new buildings and better equipment now would almost certainly be less than in a few years.

According to this Policy, if Britain suffers .a slight recession this would be the time to get busy in the same way.

Speed-record Card Exonerates Driver

gOME drivers appear to have a rooted objection against the use of recording devices, which can give the speed of a vehicle at any given time, but according to Bus and Truck Transport, of Toronto, such evidence can be of great

value in the case of an accident. Particularly in one involving one or more fatalities.

During a recent inquest into the death of a little girl (held at Hamilton, Ont.), a driver testified that two children ran across the street in front of his articulated vehicle; one .hesitated and started to turn back, but was unfortunately hit. A recorder card was submitted in evidence and this,

with its detailed 24-hour record of speed, showed that the driver was travelling at 20 m.p.h. and had stopped as quickly as possible. As a result he was absolved from blame.

Easier and Safer ?

CAN road safety be improved by giving greater attention to the controls of vehicles so that they are easier to drive? • In the current issue of Design, published by the Council of Industrial Design, 28 Haymarket. London. S.W.I, the deputy editor, an industrial designer and an engineering psychologist present their answers to this question in respect of a number of current types of private car. Their remarks are appropriate to those concerned with commercial vehicles, particularly as some of the models they deal with have van counterparts.

One Or two models are criticized for being difficult to get in and out of, and it is felt that the 'knobs for choke and starter could be better positioned in a few instances, together with an improvement in the layout of brake and gear levers. Knobs should be shaped individually to allow identification by touch, and pedals -should be so placed as to allow resting space for the left foot and easy transfer of the right foot from accelerator to brake.

The three experts condemn wrap-round windscreens. i saying that it s likely that an inexperienced person could close a front door by grasping that part of it which fits under the corner of the windscreen, thereby trapping his hand, and that the visibility afforded by such windscreens . is no improvement upon the flat type.

A member of the staff of The Commercial Motor who owns a car with such a feature cannot agree with this. Nobody has yet tried to shut the door in the manner described, in fact the window winder rather than the door pull is all too popular for this purpose. Furthermore the visibility is a distinct improvement. The contributors to Dfficii apparently sampled the cars in an exhibition hall and not on the road, so that the advantages of the raked-back windscreen pillars could not have been practically appreciated.

Controlling Quality

THE vital need for maintaining and improving existing standards of quality in British-manufactured goods, if we are to compete successfully in world markets, has prompted the Institute of Production Engineers to issue a publication an quality control.

The report is the result of research by a sub-committee of the Institute under the chairmanship of Mr. R. K. Grunau of Rolls-Royce, Ltd. The main recommendation is that in every large manufacturing concern a qualitycontrol department should be Set up. This would be entirely separate from any existing inspection department and would have full managerial backing to advise on all stages of design and manufacture.

A major aim of this new department would be to instill into the individual operative interest and pride in his job, which it is felt mass-production methods fail to do. Suggesting methods which could be introduced by the department to achieve this, the report states that "the inspection for quality should take place as closely as possible to the lime and place of the production of that quality and wherever possible by the operator himself.," To allow this it would be essential to provide suitable inspection equipment for operation by unskilled or semi-skilled labour. Electronic checking equipment which is simple to use makes this possible now. Thus the responsibility for quality would fall on the producer rather than on a separate inspection team.

The full report, which costs 10s., is available from the Institute at 10 Chesterfield Street, London, W.1.

The Origin of Sandwich Construction

AGREAT many materials are now made in sandwich form. One of the earliest and most popular of them is, of course, plywood, which can be obtained in a vast number of varieties and, where required, faced with othermaterials, such as metal. More recent products involving plies have resulted from the great use of plastics, such as glass-fabric faced on each side with p.v.c.

Not everyone, however, knows how the name "sandwich" originated, it is said that John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, placed various fillings between two slices of bread so that his gambling friends did not have to lose time by having to stop playing during their meals.


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