The weekly Iberian. (New Iberia, La.) 1894-1946, 1920-03-20
MAXWELL ENGINEERS
ENFORCE nOST
RIGID SPECIFICATIONS
Supervise Taking of
important Parts,
Nearly All of Which
Are Produced in
Maxwell Plants.

many meanings but applied to car 1T
NAV mean that the car looks fine or 1t
may mean that the car is built fine.
The public usually makes up It's mind
about the former and hears little
about the latter 1t is one more claim
of the advertising department that
The Maxwell is built to very fine lin
its. 1t is the actual standard specified
by the engineering department by
which all OF the thousands of compo-
nent parts of the car are judged before
they are allowed to enter production.
The most expensive and modern ma
chnery and the most scientific me
thods Of production are not alone re-
sponsible for the accuracy attained IN
the manufacture of the Maxwell. The
workmen and inspectors play an i'm
portant part as they maintain stan
dard of their own which IS not gov
erned by mlcrOmeters or delicate
gauges. No part ever gets by them
that they would not want in their own
car. 1t IS this spirit combined with
the latest manufacturing facilities
that makes it possible to maintain
such high standard.
Another factor in the production of
the Maxwell which makes it possible
for the company to control absolutely
it's own standards is the fact that prac
tically all of the important parts of
the car are made in Maxwell factories.
This is big advantage over most
concerns who have to depend upon
outside companies to produce the vital
parts of their car.
The rear axle Is made almost entire
ly at the Oakland Ave. plant, any
part Of which can be interchanged
with any other like part and it will fit
exactly. The ring gear or drive gear
which is probably the most important
atoms not including the various in
spections before it can qualify as
"1-1000 of an inch fine"
The drive gear is first handled as
blank disc. 1t is placed In a Gleason
Gear planer, the most accurate on the
market. where it is machined to within
lO-I 900 of an inch of the desired fne
ness. The process is repeated on a
different set of machines until it ar
rlves at the 1000 mark. At this
point in its manufacture 1t is copper
plated so that when it is finally sent
to the heat treat only the working
parts will be case hardened. The rest
Of the gear retaining its toughness
which gives it exceptional strength.
After the copper plating it is ma
chined to the final requirement and is
sent to the Heat Treating department.
Other gears are treated in like man
ner.
The inspection of the gears is per-
haps the most important part of the
work in the machine shop. Gauges
from Switzerland are used for this
purpose. The tool and inspection de-
partments carefully set these instru-
ments to the desired point and then
seal them with wax so that no work
man can change or disturb them. If
the gears pass this inspection and
there is still any question about them
they are taken to the silent room for
the final inspection.
The silent room is, as its name i'm
piles, built of heavy timber. heavy felt
and paper lining SO that all sound is
excluded. The gears are set on Bevel
gear test machines meshed with
master p1nion and the power applied,
A twenty-ton brake is attached SO that
the greatest possible strain is placed
on the gears during the test. If the
gears work silently and pass q gear
tooth vernier instrument which tests to
the prescribed 1-1C00 of inch the gears
are passed on to the heat treatments.
The Heat Treatment department
smells and feels ikea blacksmith shop
and looks like a bakery. The walls
n al
and blowing their intense frey breath
over huge pans of parts. Some of the
furnaces are used to carbOnjze the
steel parts. some to tougher the inner
fiber or core of the gears and shafts,
and others are used to raise the tenn
perature Of the parts to the proper
heat before they are placed in the
larger furnaces. Large OIL and water
watts, placed near the furnaces, are
used to chill the heated steel at the
proper time.
After part has passed through the
carbonizing furnaces it is chilled and
then reheated until case hardened,
and again heated SO that the core ac-
quires the proper toughened fiber.
Pre-. heaters and molten lead watts are
used to attend the various heats speci-
fed.
The heat in the larger oil furnaces
is regulated carefully by Pyrometer.
The heat in the furnaces creates an
electric current between two wires of
different metal. The resistance thus
created is measured by a meter gradu-
ated into degrees of fahrenheit. 1t is
possible by this system to ascertain
the heat of any furnace at any time.