Merlins > Packard vs RR

[yulzari]

What Rolls Royce provided to Ford France was direct copies of their drawings etc. for what they were making at the time. Those drawings were for a small skilled workforce making a few hundred engines which was all that Rolls Royce had been expecting to make. Hence tolerances and hand fitting suited to such a small run production.

When they went to shadow factory mass production they adjusted them to fixed standards to suit semi skilled machine work and this is what Ford of Britain had supplied to them and those would have been updated to Ford France had that project gone ahead.

Also Merlin factories in Britain had to use existing machinery with only a limited amount of new machines, given the competition for machines in a country on a war economy. Similar competition delayed welding tank hulls as trained and experienced welders were poached by the ship building industry which had an equal, if not higher in some cases, labour priority. Packard had access, albeit in competition with other aero engine manufacturers, to new latest machinery so could achieve, and indeed needed, finer tolerances than British Merlins which achieved similar tolerances by other means such as selecting matching pistons to an engine from piston stocks rather than having all pistons and cylinders made to a necessary tolerance.

It was not a matter of master craftsmen at Rolls Royce filing engine parts from a set of forging by hand like magic gnomes nor futuristic Americans popping out identical parts from a time travelled replicator but a sensible use of available resources at each factory. The end result was Merlin engines which were interchangeable across the factories and across the Atlantic Ocean.

 

[pbehn]

What Rolls Royce provided to Ford France was direct copies of their drawings etc. for what they were making at the time. Those drawings were for a small skilled workforce making a few hundred engines which was all that Rolls Royce had been expecting to make. Hence tolerances and hand fitting suited to such a small run production.

When they went to shadow factory mass production they adjusted them to fixed standards to suit semi skilled machine work and this is what Ford of Britain had supplied to them and those would have been updated to Ford France had that project gone ahead.

Also Merlin factories in Britain had to use existing machinery with only a limited amount of new machines, given the competition for machines in a country on a war economy. Similar competition delayed welding tank hulls as trained and experienced welders were poached by the ship building industry which had an equal, if not higher in some cases, labour priority. Packard had access, albeit in completion with other aero engine manufacturers, to new latest machinery so could achieve, and indeed needed, finer tolerances than British Merlins which achieved similar tolerances by other means such as selecting matching pistons to an engine from piston stocks rather than having all pistons and cylinders made to a necessary tolerance.

It was not a matter of master craftsmen at Rolls Royce filing engine parts from a set of forging by hand like magic gnomes nor futuristic Americans popping out identical parts from a time travelled replicator but a sensible use of available resources at each factory. The end result was Merlin engines which were interchangeable across the factories and across the Atlantic Ocean.

Far too much is made of that quote and interaction between Lovesey and Ford. Prior to Lovesey being put in that position at RR he had worked with the R type racing engines for the Schneider trophy, on those you do and did make pistons fit each other using craftsmen because they only made a few of them each year. Rolls Royce made car engines and aero engines like the Kestrel with 5,000 produced, while not the levels of production seen later it wasnt cottage industry stuff by gnomes and Derby housewives.

 

[SaparotRob]

It wasn't?

 

[pbehn]

It wasn't?

Of course not, there were Warleggans, Wheeltappers and Boatswains involved too.

 

[SaparotRob]

Of course not, there were Warleggans, Wheeltappers and Boatswains involved too.

The things one learns here.

 

[yulzari]

Of course not, there were Warleggans, Wheeltappers and Boatswains involved too.

And my sole industrial employment was as a Tagger in a tube mill (including some for Rolls Royce in special steel and in titanium for Tour de France bicycles) and I can also legitimately swear like a trooper. Albeit a Yeomanry Trooper; which would be a better class of swearing and more rural and horsey, but not as horsey as the ex-Household Cavalry trooper who shares the (mumble mumble) years old pensioner Memsahib's current degree course at one of our local universities and he is currently doing a summer experience in hot glasswork in Murano in Venice whilst she is looking forward to the welding segment of the degree in the autumn whilst I wrangle 3 year old twins, cook and clean. Retirement is not what I had expected, especially the sheep fencing and antique gun dealing.

Thinks: am I digressing? Nurse is it time for my next medication? I need to finish the re-roofing on my 15th century house in France and I still have to fit two Velux windows into it. Life was simpler when I was working full time in Blighty.

BTW I have just noticed my forum rank is Staff Sergeant which seems apposite as I was a Staff Sergeant in actuality in the olden days.

 

[Reluctant Poster]

What Rolls Royce provided to Ford France was direct copies of their drawings etc. for what they were making at the time. Those drawings were for a small skilled workforce making a few hundred engines which was all that Rolls Royce had been expecting to make. Hence tolerances and hand fitting suited to such a small run production.

When they went to shadow factory mass production they adjusted them to fixed standards to suit semi skilled machine work and this is what Ford of Britain had supplied to them and those would have been updated to Ford France had that project gone ahead.

Also Merlin factories in Britain had to use existing machinery with only a limited amount of new machines, given the competition for machines in a country on a war economy. Similar competition delayed welding tank hulls as trained and experienced welders were poached by the ship building industry which had an equal, if not higher in some cases, labour priority. Packard had access, albeit in competition with other aero engine manufacturers, to new latest machinery so could achieve, and indeed needed, finer tolerances than British Merlins which achieved similar tolerances by other means such as selecting matching pistons to an engine from piston stocks rather than having all pistons and cylinders made to a necessary tolerance.

It was not a matter of master craftsmen at Rolls Royce filing engine parts from a set of forging by hand like magic gnomes nor futuristic Americans popping out identical parts from a time travelled replicator but a sensible use of available resources at each factory. The end result was Merlin engines which were interchangeable across the factories and across the Atlantic Ocean.

The RR Glasgow factory at Hillington was built from the ground up and and not use existing machinery. Further more it drew from a workforce than did not have any of the skills necessary to produce aero engines. The area was the world center for shipbuilding which is on completely different scale from aero engine building.

Also note that the Ford plant was provided with components produced in Hillington. I guess Ford personnel were issued with mallets to pound the ill fitting Rolls Royce parts into position.

Compare to the production methods in the following video to any American factory and you won't see much difference.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fo7SmNuUU4