OCR Text |
Show 1 1 ILI TONS ' j EXCESS WEIGHT )N0 'fn 0W mUl-'' dof- oui tar weigh?) W iKow often that question asked'' cd what i- back ot that question"" j SU million auto owner are awaken-. Id? to the fact that light weight is I Bore important than anything else per-i per-i pining to the modern self propelled SWeMcIe. All cost of upkeep, riding wnfort, power ranie and touring lati ' hdf depeud absolutely on car weight. Ive million tons of excess weight are "IMjrried by American motor cars. How I touch of this excess weight are you carrying ! The automobile designer recognizes the importance of this question and knows thai all his engineering skin must be directed to achieving that" most desired end a light weight car. Great efforts are being made to reduce re-duce weight. Take the car piece by piece everywhere has weight been CUl while strength has been added Here and there heavy iron castings and channel iron have been replaced by pressed steel, dropped forgings of alloy steel, aluminum, aluminum alloy castings, wood and sheet metal. Aluminum, Alu-minum, due l iis first cost and BOmi times uncertain supply, has not been used in automobile construction nearly so much as it might have been. Alum inum cost-; a trifle more than steel allay al-lay probably $24 to $50 more than steel if the car were made entirely of tluminum There is plenty of mated- I al from which to make aluminum, for1 Jit is estimated that about one-eighth of' the earth's crust contains aluminum J It seems as though the metal should1 answer the lleht weight problem.! Aluminum alloy ha3 a tensile strength! greater than that of steel of tho same weight. It is more easily machined, lese liable to break and gives a smooth-' er. cleaner, more uniform job throughout through-out the entire manufacturing operation opera-tion Aluminum alloy stampings are easier easi-er to make, thay require little or no . annealing between redraws, which' eliminates objectionable scaling Scaling BCOres dies, lr turning, the, lathe can be speeded up much higher and the surface of the grinding wheel I becomes clogged more slowly. And sol far as finish is concerned, aluminum: allow will polish a3 high as silver. Paint and enamel hold better on alum Inum, due to Its more or less porous) structure will not chip off as easily as from iron or steel. Considerable weight already has1 been eliminated from cars using aluminum alum-inum alloy. Some of the most import-, j ant parts thus made are body, entire i motors, bearing caps, cylinder block, cowl board, carburetor body, crank case, clutch cone, differential carrier, j fan, feeders, flywheel housing, gener I ator brackets, hub caps, hood, ln'ake i manifold, oil pump body, pistons, radi-! radi-! ator shell, rear axle housing, steering i Wheel spider, spark and throttle lev-I lev-I ers, transmission case, timing gear I case, covers, etc. Since actual service has demonstrated demon-strated the rearing qualities of these parts made of aluminum alloy, combined com-bined with the ease of handling dur-; dur-; ing manufacturing process, we can j look forward to the tlm when the coming automobile will be made en Urely, or almost entirely, of aluminum And then the question will be hoard! frequently, "How much aluminum is , there in your car?" |