Speaking of rivets;
I was noticing in the discussion on flex plate doublers that welding and bolting were mentioned, but not riveting. Rivets are very light, strong and reliable. If the material science of the parts - to - be - joined are not entirely known, then riveting seems better than welding. There won't be any heat effected areas, and warping can be avoided.
As for bolting, riveting seems better because rivets are small, and many more can be used in the same area compared to bolts, for a stronger join....unless dissassembly is required.
''In service inspections'' favor rivets as well, they show a potential failure as a 'smoked rivet'.
Possibly the original 13b flexplate could be beefed up with a doubler plate riveted in?
I'm not willing to invest in a heavy overblown repair. I'm looking forward to a good reason for the known failures, and the lightest repair that does the job. Until then, I would continue with the 13b flex plate, and increase the inspection interval, it's not hard to look in there.
Once cracks are observed, but not fully developed, a cause may be determined. Then a better cure can be developed.
Scott
PS:
Dave;
You are really pushing the envalope on this. I admire your drive. I'm certain you will arrive at a flywheel that works, but I'm concerned you will use 'Overkill' doing it. I do it all the time, and I've started trying to control the tendancy. My oldest step son, who I hang out with a lot, has started calling me on it. You may need a similar mentor.
-----Original Message-----
From: David Leonard <wdleonard@gmail.com>
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Sun, Jul 17, 2011 9:21 pm
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Ok Here are the important flywheel measurements
That is not a bad idea while I have it all apart, as I have not changed them out yet. Inspection does not show anything that looks like a smoking rivet.
On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Tracy
<rwstracy@gmail.com> wrote:
a kelly wrote:
.Did you replace the
aluminum rivets in your RD1X damper plate with steel bolts ?..............I seem to remember that
you did after several dampers (and yours) experienced alum streaking around the rivets...........
Just FYI to the group, the change I settled on for the damper rivets was to use -AD rivets instead of -A. The tensile strength is about 3 times higher on the -AD.
Tracy
Sent from my iPad
.Did you replace the
aluminum rivets in your RD1X damper plate with steel bolts ?..............I seem to remember that
you did after several dampers (and yours) experienced alum streaking around the rivets...........