Pressed-metal Units for Body Framework
Page 55
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
An Interesting System Suggested by This Journal Now Being Developed by Well-known Concern
MANY of the leading builders of bodies for public service vehicles are to-day considering the employment of metal frame members in the place of oak and ash, and it is interesting to find that a construction principle to which reference was made in the issue of this journal dated August 11th, 1931, for the use of pressed-steel crossbraeings is already being developed.
Patents have been granted to the Union Construction and Finance Co., Ltd., Victoria Road, Feltham, Middlesex, covering such a system of crossbracing for all kinds of vehicle. The patents actually cover castings or pressed or flanged metal units, fluted or swaged where necessary to give additional. rigidity, but particular interest
attaches to the pressed-steel or alloy unit of cruciform shape, which is especially useful for the purposes of the motor-vehicle industry.
The Union Construction Co. developed the principle with the object of employing it in the building of trailer ears for use an the London electric railways, and has found that additional strength and reduced weight would be obtained by comparison with methods employing rolled-steel angle-sectioned members. Single units of light angle steel * in. thick, especially if they be long, have little rigidity, whereas pressed or flanged units of material thick, properly designed and having the necessary brackets, lugs, etc.,, integrally formed, often give superior rigidity and
resistance to the stresses expected in regular service.
Some progress has been made with similar forms of construction in the building of bodies for private mot...'cars, but the problem of bodybui-Juipg for commercial vehicles offers a wider scope because of the greater stresses which commercial-vehicle bodies, particularly those of double-deck passenger vehicles, have to bear.
The lateral-stress factor of the doublesaloon vehicle is out of all proportion with that experienced with even the largest of saloon motorcars. Some comparison in this respect may be made between the tramcar and the motorbus, and the form of construction referred to above is thought to be suitable for the largest of modern tramcars.
To give an idea of the weight economy, the body frame of an Underground railway coach, built Of mildsteel pressings of this type, shows a saving of about 20 per cent, in weight over a body frame built of rolled sections joined by small pressed parts.
The Union Construction and Finance Co., Ltd., is prepared to negotiate with bodybuilders concerning the right of use.