Engineering Humour

December, 2005 :

Dave was alone in his room, he had decided that a little stress relief was in order so he took hold of his component and began the gentle polishing to produce the appropriate surface finish.

This was a fine art and the process had taken many years to perfect, in the early days he had problems with fretting, so much so that there had been several premature failures in service. The investigation led to root cause and corrective action involving the application of the appropriate oils and coolants during the polishing process, all of which improved the general finish.

This was not the end of the problems, it was evident that component was very sensitive to in-service gouges, nicks and impact loads. The application of severe hoop compression and the high cycle tension and compression activity had led at times to the component being unused for many days although still at arms reach.

It surprised Dave that the initial curvature of the part could not be removed, nor could the overall stroke be increased, it was however an added feature that the part was impervious to galling with little effect from internal pressure (although a parting line was quite evident).

Dave continued with the gentle polishing, until the surface was quite burnished, it was then that a sudden clamping action on the flange ended the process, however, the finish was incredible.

All that was left to do then was the paperwork......