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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 2111.PDF
DECEMBER IITH, 1947 FLIGHT 661 This is a state of affairs which reflects extremely creditablyupon all concerned. Engines and airscrews arrive at Treforest by road and by rail from the bases of the Corporation's operating divisions and, having been uncrated at the reception bay, are at once sent on their journey of dismemberment. In the case of engines, these are immediately stripped by specialist teams, being dissembled on a line system. In this connection it is worthy of record that throughout the base the policy has been to employ specialist labour; that is to say, a team of men has the job of, for example, removing and dissembling the supercharger, this being the only job they do; it will, however, be done at maximum speed and efficiency. As the line system is adopted at Treforest, the number of men to a section is governed by the man-hours required to do that particular job in order to keep the engine moving along the line at regular interval. Thus it is that the labour distribution is governed by movement / work requirements. When the engine is completely dismantled, the whole of the components are very carefully packed into large A P. and W. Wasp on test on one of the metal baskets for degreasing. From the degreaser the basket is soaked for three to four hours in one of a battery of Vista (creosol-base) tanks at 90 deg C. Each of the Vista tanks is flanked by a hot-water tank of similar dimen- sions, into which the baskets are dipped prior to moving on to the paraffin spray. The individual components are then separately air-dried, again degreased, and. finally stacked on tray trolleys. Adjacent to the degreasing section is a sub-section where cylinders are externally cleaned by sand blasting. Cylinder bores, pistons and various other light-alloy parts are blast- cleaned by pip-bombardment. We must confess to finding pip-blasting quite novel ; the pips are, in fact, broken apricot stones which are quite sufficiently hard to clean a piston of carbon, yet are not hard enough to cause damage by impact on the metal. In the same shop as the blasting booths are two metal- lization booths in which a fine wire of aluminium is auto- matically fed into a special nozzle incorporating a pressure flame rather like a blow torch; the aluminium wire is An hydraulically operated blade-twisting madt repair section. melted and the high-velocity jet sprays it in a finely atom- ized molten mist so that, in fact, the part being treated is painted" with an aluminium skin. After passage through the marking and magna-flux sec-tions, all parts are taken into the first-stage viewing room In this bay, which is staffed entirely by girls, a preliminaryinspection is made and obviously hopeless parts are rejected. Parts which the girl viewers consider doubtfulare later checked by experienced (male) inspectors, where they are alternatively passed as capable of renovationsent back as suitable foi salvage, or dismissed as beyond redemption. Those parts which require renovation areissued direct to the appropriate sections of the factory where, having been refurbished, they are all canalized intoa department which is called Main Control. Order of Renaissance This is best described as a kind of stores and rallyingpoint for all the bits and pieces which go to make up a complete air-cooled radial engine. Complementing MainControl are the main stores in which are stocked only bought-out parts, although the selection comprehensivelycovers everything from bar stock to magnetos. Items which are rejected during the passage through the factory to thispoint are replenished.by brand-new items from these stores. Salvaged components which have been renovated to apristine condition are stored in Main Control, however, arid a new item will not, of course, be extracted from thebought-out stores if a salvaged replica already exists. The assembly-point function of Main Control is to bringv jther every item required for a sub-assembly such as,example, a reduction gear, and all the requisite com- ponents are then issued to the appropriate section on theassembly side of the works. The various sub-assembly sections run from Main Control at right angles and are, inturn, bounded at the opposite end by the main assembly line which, again at right angles, is thus parallel to theMain Control. The disposition of the sub-assembly sections is such that, starting from the beginning of the mainassembly line and working past each sub-assembly section in turn, the engine is rebuilt, each sub-assembly beingdelivered at the position and time that it is required. As in the dismantling side of the works, so in theassembly section does the specialist worker system apply, but to this basically sound production system B.O.A.c!have added the refinement of graduating a skilled man from section to section if he gives evidence of qualifyingfor such movement. By this means, boredom with a given job is avoided and a man who, as it were, completes thecourse, finishes up with an unrivalled knowledge of the engines. From this he can, if he wants, progress to higherthings. Of the renovation and salvage reclamation work, mention
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