WARPAINT FOR SHELLS

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

WARPAINT FOR SHELLS

NEW SPRAYING MACHINE 5000 DONE IN EIGHT HOURS Three people can put the paint on 5000 of Britain’s war shells in eight hours with a new machine designed and built in only 10 days by British makers of paint-spraying equipment. The. machine does the work of 120

men and women in one-fiftieth of the time. The first one showed that a 25pounder shell oould be given its coat process which, previously" called for four or five handlings and took as many minutes to carry out. Two watchers and a loader are the only labour required. Another’ machine* de* signed to put on automatically the red and green marking symbols was evolved in three or four weeks, while a smaller version of this, for 20mm. •shells, marks 30 shells a minute, or one every two seconds. Technicians’ Experiences These technicians were able to tackle the job because of their experience in making machinery for lacquering -food cans, many of which have been supplied to food-eanners since war broke out. They are coating lib cans at the rate of 25,000 per 8-liour shift. Some of Britain’s “beautiful bombs” are handled at the factory where tiny jet sprays designed to a half-thousandth of an inch give an inside coating to protect the metal from the action of explosive chemicals. The coating has to be exactly even, and the machine cuts out automatically when the job is finished. Before the war there were no women among the 40 hands employed at the factory; now 40 of the 100 people working there are women. Before the war, one girl checker who is even more critical of the work than the Government inspectors, was working i on leather handbags.