N.Z. FEAT

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3151, 3 August 1942, Page 7

N.Z. FEAT

UNIVERSAL CARRIERS A CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT SOME PARTS MADE IN THAMES Considering its limitations of man-power and resources, New Zealand industry has established a record in the production of war material which few, if any, countries can surpass. Greatest of these achievements is the manufacture of universal carriers from blue prints and raw materials to the finished vehicle. Within three months of commencement to final as-

sembly, an output of 130 completely equipped carriers a month was reached, and the

organisation is now being planned to double this output in the near future. This achievement cannot be measured in terms of units alone, for behind it lies an amazing story of planning and organisation, of searching the world, as well as New Zealand, for the necessary raw materials.

It is an achievement in face of almost insuperable difficulties, of coordinated. action between the Munitions Controller, the Ministry of Supply and Munitions, the main contractors, and fifty other subcontractors, of planning and production on a scale never* before conceived by New Zealand workmen and New Zealand’s immature industry, without the normal overseas supplies of parts and patterns, tackling the joib from blue prints up. No one factory was capable of expanding within itself to handle such a project. In the key assembly plant of the main contractors, technicians planned and organised day and night for months on end to weld all available resources of New Zealand into one high-speed production unit. The plans and schedules initially formulated contemplated a maximum output of ten complete carriers a week after the first five months. Time Factor Beaten Overseas experts with long experience in carrier and tank production said: “You’re being optimistic,” for never before had New Zealand industry ' attempted mass production of such intricate parts. But it was done; through days and nights men laboured; for weeks on end they averaged 77 hours a week—a record for New Zealand industry. Not 10 per week after five months, but a rate of 10 per week was achieved by the end of the fifth week. Within three three months —still well within the five-month period—an output of 130 carriers in one month was reached.

Bigger, heavier and more powerful than the well-known Bren gun carrier, these universal carriers, weighing more than four tons and capable of high cross-country speeds, were no mere “assembly” job. Nor was it a matter of copying and duplicating specimen parts. All that was available to the many firms who participated in .the manufacturing were .blue-prints and specifications . Fifty Sub-contractors Thus, the wheels began to move; the great presses stamped out their pieces in an ever-increasing tempo. Forging plants, milling machines, automatic turret lathes, heat treatment furnaces swung into action, as out to the sub-contractors —in some cases ‘5OO miles from the key factory—fanned plans and specifications. Parts made in Auckland had to come together with a precision that permitted not one-thousandth of an inch variation with complementary parts made in Dunedin. Rough hewn and husky though these carriers are, they contain precision units the manufacture of which was considered impossible by the overseas specialising factories. The Endless Track The most vulnerable part of a carrier or tank is the caterpillar track. There are 274 links, each individually cast, in these two belts of steel. More than 30,000 links, all exactly alike, are delivered each month by the sub-contractors. Cushioning the carrier on its track are ten heavily-sprung bogie wheels—a perfect compromise between strength and lightness. .Steel scrap is used to a substantial degree in manufacturing these wheels and never has the slogan “Weapons from Waste” been more truly applicable. Transmission of Power

No standard pattern universal joint could possibly stand the strain of so heavy a vehicle travelling

across rock or ditches. A coupling of unique design, containing over 90 precision parts, was imported from overseas. * Suddenly a stoppage of production was threatened when the overseas manufacturer failed to deliver on time. So complex was the coupling that the original suppliers estimated that it would, take two to three months just to tool up for production in New Zealand. Typical of the entire production of these universal carriers was the fact that the Christchurch engineering firm entrusted with the mass production of these couplings delivered the first in less than thirty days from the first suggestion that it would have to be made here. Huge Key Factory From Auckland, from Thames, Palmerston North, Dannevirke, Marton, Stratford, Christchurch and Dunedin; from railway workshops, from factories, large and small, scattered throughout the country—even from a small workshop nestling in the snow beneath the Alps where girls operate machines in shifts through twenty-four hours of the day—flows a stream of these manufactured parts, each so accurately made that all come ■ 'together with a precision which eliminates time wasting “fitting.” Initial deliveries arrived ahead of time, and in many cases, in the opinion of experts, better than imported components would have been.

New Zealand was fortunate in having a ready-made key assembly factory. In one of the largest motor plants, occupying more than six acres of floor space, were huge qverhead cranes traversing the full length of a 460 ft assembly bay, gigantic 400-ton presses, heavy-duty welding, cutting and drilling machines that alone could handle the armour plate carcases. Here men had re-tooled machines, made oi* re-arranged jigs and gantries, and organised a steady in-flow of materials. The Munitions Controller, the Ministry of Supply, and other Government departments dovetailed with private enterprise to secure in. record time additional specialised tools, special steel, armour plate and raw materials. The Assembly Line Huge cranes take the completed hulls and, place them two abreast to travel down the long assembly lines, and fed into the lines come the parts and components.from distant workshops. Cranes lift axles, engines, bogies; men swarm over each' carrier supplying batteries, lights, steering mechanism and cushioned seats.

The final check-up calls for a gruelling 20-mile road test and the hurdling of a ramp—a bounce through mid-air—to land, on solid rock.

In spite of. the fact that nearly all the major processes had never been attempted in this country before; in spite of problems in the supply of raw materials, New Zealand’s munitions programme is an accomplished fact. Machine-gun carriers, light armoured vehicles, grenades, bombs, trench mortars, munitions in a score of categories, “made in New Zealand,” now flow from, our factories in an ever-growing flood. These carriers are not built on a chassis; the hull is an armoured “box” of complicated shape fabricated to withstand terrific stresses. Riveting the hull was too slow. New Zealand was combed for welders, and in they came from distant cities and small provincial towns; men experienced in the comparatively young trade of welding, but who knew little of armour plate, for armour plate had not been welded in this coutnry before.