Torque Converter Applications
Page 61
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r LEA R justification . for the 71/4-• application of a torque converter must be found not only from the point of view of initial cost but also from that of fuel economy and control." This opinion was expressed by Mr. R. G. Hill, of the British Twin Disc Co., Ltd., in his paper entitled The Practical .Application of Torque Converters, presented to the Diesel Engineers and Users Association in London yesterday. Mr. -Hill pointed out that a careful analysis of the work cycle of the vehicle in question was of prime importance also. The author gave a general guide as to the types of applications to wheeled vehicles where it . would seem that a torque converter was justified. These included vehicles having short or rapidly recurring duty cycles where the torquemultiplication and acceleration characteristics of the converter could reduce gear .changing and consequently the time cycle; vehicles operating under severe conditions where shock loading on the transmission would result in poor service life; vehicles having specialized duties where the wheels are stalled under load at some point in the working cycle; vehicles having one power
source which carries , out two
diatinctly separate duties; and vehicles working with rapidly varying transmission loadings. Examples of these types of wheeled vehicle include fork-lift trucks, heavy dump trucks, tractor shovels, hydraulic loading shovels and road graders. Thus it would appear. from Mr. Hill's paper that whilst the wide variety, of industrial vehicles, including earth-moving and Special types, manufactured today provided a number, of interesting applications for torque-converter drives. at the same time they provided an equally wide field for disappointment. As the author made no direct reference to normal road-haulage vehicles it can be assumed that this type of transport provides one of the disappointments.'
MOBILE SPARES STORES
TWO further mobile spares stores have been placed in service by Ford and Slater, Ltd., Leicester. Both are based on Leyland Comet CS3.3R chassis, with bodies built by Marshall's Motor Bodies, Ltd., Cambridge. The new vehicles will join a Comet which has been operating on this type of work for over a year, and will cover Albion, Leyland and Scammell operators in Northamptonshire, South Warwickshire, and parts of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.