Discussion on "Production testing equipment" at the Birmingham Section of the Institution

R. H. YOUNGASH, Section President, who presided: It seems to me very remarkable to see the advances that have been made in this particular field of electrical testing. The point that struck me most forcibly is that the principal method of testing is by the input rather than the output of power. Many of you will have had some experience with the early method of electrical testing such as used to be the vogue, where we had a barrel of water, some salt, and a couple of lengths of piping for anodes ; this was a very unsatisfactory way of testing, and the idea of putting this power to some useful purpose will obviously please production engineers by the conservation of energy. Personally, I do not think the whole field has been by any means explored yet. I am visualising the application of this particular method of testing to ascertaining accurately the power absorbed by cutting tools¿that would be a very valuable and useful means of comparing the relative performance of different kinds of steel, different cutting angles, etc. That is a point to which we, as production engineers have not, up to the moment, given nearly sufficient attention. We instal a machine because it produces a piece in a given time which is better than we have done before, and too frequently ignore the fact that we have spent most of the saving in horse-power in doing so