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I.R.T.E. Visit to Champion Works

2nd August 1946, Page 40
2nd August 1946
Page 40
Page 40, 2nd August 1946 — I.R.T.E. Visit to Champion Works
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BY the courtesy of Mr. A. W. Wright, managing director of the Champion Sparking Plug Co., Ltd., a large party of members of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers was afforded an opportunity of making a thorough inspection of the company's works at Feltham, Middlesex, on July 24. For those members who arrived by train, a London Transport bus had been provided to carry them from and to the nearest station, and the whole visit reflected this first example of organization and courtesy. Even a marquee had been erected on the lawn, with " Mecca Cafés" as the caterer. Here, the members first had coffee while being introduced to the directors.

During the war the company produced the amazing total of 50,000,000 sparking plugs for the Armed Forces and to meet essential needs. The output was maintained night and day, very often under the menace of air raids, flying bombs and rockets, and after the first few raids the workers refused to occupy the shelters.

The factory itself is compact and highly efficient—an opinion shared by all the visitors. Automatic machines are in extensive use, and some work at extremely high production speeds. In one a plug body, on which some 12 operations are performed, is produced every 10 secs.; another, of a smaller type, in 6 secs., and this from bars of Ledloy. The speed is assisted by rotating the tools and bars in opposite directions.

The side electrode is welded to the body in an automatic machine, the time occupied for each being 0.4 sec., a surge of current passing through the wire, which is a nickel-alloy of secret speci

fication. Another clever automatic inserts wire into the upper gaskets which have been pressed on a further machine. The threads of the body are accurate on the pitch line to plus or minus .002 in. The central electrode is not under 96 per cent. nickel. To form a holding flange in it, it is held in two dies and " bumped up at the point required.

Special ceramics are employed for the insulator. To lock this in position, powder ground to 120,000 to the sq. in. —much finer than face powder—is tamped between the core and the body by a special machine, and it has the valuable property of solidifying under the blows.

Setting of the electrodes is performed at great speed by a hand tool which bends the outer electrodes sideways if necessary, following which it is knocked down towards the central electrode and tested by a simple gauge having two wires, a " go " and a " no go." Most careful tests for accuracy and leakage are carried out throughout production. and during the month before the visit only eight plugs were returned by purchasers for alleged manufacturing defects.

The plugs are finally blued and made rust-resisting in a sodium-nitrate and black-manganese bath heated to 1,200 degrees F.

, The printing of the cores is particularly interesting. After the wording has been imprinted on to the glazed insulator, this is passed through a gas radiant-heat furnace, and the print goes right through the glaze into the core.

The company also runs a compact service department, to which used plugs are sent by the ton for reconditioning.

Following luncheon, Mr. H. G. Starley, C.B.E., F.I.M.1., sales director, gave a brief review of the position as it concerned sparking plugs, and mentioned that 40-50 per cent, of the production was going abroad. He expressed the hope that in future plugs would be cheaper and even more efficient. He also drew attention to the Champion Service Unit, in which a plug can be thoroughly cleansed in a few seconds.

The chairman of the Institute, Mr. G. Mackenzie Junner, proposed a vote of thanks to the company and its directors, in which he was seconded by Mr. Braithwaite, chairman of the Midlands Section.


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