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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0548.PDF
352' F LIGHT MARCH 24TH, 1949 SPECIALIZED CAPACITY Precision and Craftsmanship at a Famous Coventry Works THERE have been many epochal "events in the historyof our civilization which, as they occurred, dennedthe course .which that civilization was to take. Immeasurably the greatest of these was the industrial revo- lution, for that event was the plinth from, which our whole present design of living took its shape. t In many ways a curse and yet implicit in our way of life—and, indeed, one of the prime factors which makes that way of life possible—is specialization. Specialization became essential with conversion to the creed of quantity production until, today, we have the situation where a manufacturer of, for example, an aircraft, will design the aircraft and build it, but the great majority of component parts which go to ma"ke up the finished article will have been supplied by myriad concerns, each specializing in the production of theft own particular Item—undercarriages, engines, airscrews; instruments, radio, and so forth. Nevertheless, although by the term specialization we normally connote application to one particular field or line, one can also quite justifiably use the term in con- nection with the concern whose function it is to act as a producer of experimental or individual items, or whose talents and facilities render it capable of giving specialist service. Such a concern is Cornercroft, Ltd., Ace Works, Coventry. This is really an astonishing company, in the sense that it seems to be a microcosm of the concept that Henry Ford began putting into practice 35 years ago. That is to say, it is a quite self-sufficient unit where virtually everything required to carry a job through is done on the premises: reliance on outside aid is at a minimum. Although the major activities of the company are concerned with the car industry—standard production lines are the famous Ace wheel-discs and number plates— aviation interests run a very close second. However, it is in the experimental and jig and tool fields rattier than in terms of production items that Cornercrofts chiefly serve the aircraft industry. In the sheet-metal shop, about 100 skilled tinsmiths are kept busy making such things as air-intake and filter-tray units for Sea Furies (a complex job of awkward angles and large changes of section), shmilder cowls for Hercutes power plants, front-cowl support-plates for Tempests and Fireflies, and tailpipe, sections in stainless steel for Mambas. In addition to these, many interesting exhaust manifolds of various types, all fabricated in stainless steel (an in- tractable material) are being made up for Rolls-Royce. Cowlings for Cheetah, Centanrus and Hercules engines Metal-spinning is a craft. Delicacy of touch and almost intuitive knowledge of materials are absolutely essential. Typical of the larger jig-work done at Cornercrafts is this Vampire foseiage assembly jig destined for export to Switzerland. are a Cornercroft production line, and until one sees a cowling in course of construction, the complexity and amount of detail work involved goes unrealized. There is great contrast in the spacious lightness of the metal shop, with the staccato tapping of its many mallets, and the murky vastness of the Cornercroft foundries. These, with their attendant pattern-makers' shops, are equipped with gas-fired furnaces and offer ferrous-metal casting capa- city up to z\ tons and non-ferrous (aluminium, phospher- bronze, brass and copper) capacity up to diameters of 5ft or the equivalent rectangular dimension. Press tools for the company's own press shop are produced in the foun- dries to serve the battery of double- and single-acting presses of up to 250 tons. As with many of the other departments, however, the output of the foundries is not confined solely to internal demands—a good deal of cast work is produced for the trade. Toolroom Facilities The toolroom is a place to gladden the heart of anyone with an appreciation of machine tools. Jig-boring is under- taken on S.I.P., Pratt and Whitney and Newall machines, whilst Keller and Reed-Prentice machines look after die- sinking requirements. Gauges, jigs, fixtures and, in fact,' virtually all forms of master and precision tools are pro- duced by the company—again, not only for their own work, but also for outside custQmers. To serve as an ex- mple of the range and diversity of work done in the Cornercroft toolroom, at the time of our visit we saw a magnificent die-stamp tool for producing a complicated part for an automatic telephone switchgear and, by con- rast, a large, structural jig for the Vampire fuselage: this jig was but one of a series ordered for Switzerland. Craftsmanship is a word which is so often today flag- rantly misused that one almost hesitates to employ it. For one thing, it is not readily definable, but if we take it to mean the exercise of an individual skill born of an in- tuitive feeling for the medium, then perhaps it will serve to indicate what we mean when we speak of craftsmanship in this article. In the production of complex shapes under the tin- smith's hammer, in the caressing delicacy of the foundry- man as he sculpts away any little irregularity in cope or drag, there is craftsmanship of high order. And equally as much a craft is the shaping of metal on the spinning- lathes. What the potter does with his hands, the spinner does with a variety of moulding tools—shaped metal spikes carried on long wooden hafts with which, by bearing against a fulcrum pin, he shapes the spinning disc of metal B 20
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