Message text written by "Kinderlehrer"
>Perhaps to lower manufacturing costs? Just a WAG, but from having zero
knowledge (that just means I have much greater room to muse :-)), it would
seem an easier process requiring less equipment to screw in a few bolts
than
to heat, then press on a heavy gear. After all this was the age of the
time
and motion study.
<
I would think quite the opposite. The bolt-n technique would require
drilling and tapping additional holes in the flywheel and drilling holes in
the ring gear and the accuracy required is not trivial. The additional
machining steps far outweigh the assembly labour saved (if any) in the
assembly step. Besides, if this were the more economical method why are
all the others press-on (or heat-shrink)?
Actually, the heat-shrink method could be more labour effective in
assembly, too. Consider a conveyor oven. One gent loads the conveyor with
the ring grears which make their way through the oven. The oven exit is
situated in close proximity to another conveyor containing the flywheels
where another gent will pull a ring gear out of the oven (with a pair of
tongs), drop in onto a flywheel and tap it into place with a brass hammer.
Done.
Contrast that with pulling a heavier ring gear (with bolt holes)
positioning it on the flywheel aligning the holes in the gear with the
holes in the flywheel. placing a bolt in each of the holes and starting
the threads by hand and then snugging up the bolts with a pneumatic wrench.
But all this is speculation since I have not had the luxury of actually
seeing the factory in action.
Cheers
Dave
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