CRITICIZES EXCESS WEIGHT IN SOVIET AUTOMATIC PARTS; ZIS-150 TRUCK OUTPUT 100,000 YEARLY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360344-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 22, 2011
• Sequence Number: 344
• Publication Date: November 21, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360344-0
CLASSIFICATION coNFIDENTIAL CONFIDENTIAL
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPORT
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO,
COUNTRY USSR
SUBJECT Economic; Technological - Automobile industry
HOW
PUBLISHED Monthly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED USSR
DATE
PUBLISHED Sep 1950
LANGUAGE Russian
OF TH^ ONITID ITATI/ WITHIN THI NUNINO OF 1IPIONAII ACT YO
Y. I. .31 AMP AT, M ANINOIO. ITN IAANIMIISION ON THI IITILATION
OI IT' 0ONTINl11 IN ANY MARNIM TO AN YNAYTHOIIIID PINION IN -RO?
NIIITID IT LAO. II-RODYCTION or TNII FORM is PIOHIPITIO.
DATE OF
INFORMATION 1950
DATE DIST. Nov 1950
NO. OF PAGES ' 3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
Avtomobil'naya I Traktornaya Promyshlennost', No 9, 1950.
CRITICIZES EXCESSWEIGRT IN SOVIET AAOMA'PIC'PARTS;
ZIS-150 TRUCK?OUTPUT 1 ,000 YEARLY'
CONFIDENTIAL
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360344-0
The need to reduce the weight of trucks and automobiles is a serious prob-
lem in the automobile industry, the solution of which would bring about great
savings and improve production techniques. The excessive durability norms pre-
vailing for many machine parts lies as a heavy burden on many branches of in-
dustry. In the automobile industry, these excessive reserve margins cause over-
consumption of materials on a huge scale and in many cases lower the productiv-
ity index of vehicles. Reducing the weight of trucks, in particular, while pre-
serving their required index of reliability, would increase their load capacity.
Consequently, this would reduce the number of vehicles required for transport
purposes.
y
no
so tion. The designer, guided as a rule by mere intuition without reference to op-
erating conditions, is led to produce larger and heavier vehicle parts.
There are cases where plants, faced with certain complaints, are led to
strengthen one part or another, while there has been almost no effort to reduce
the wejot of rr'part, even when there is no doubt that this would cr.ise no break-
age or more rapid wear and tear.
Moreover, there are cases where the struggle for reliability in vehicles be-
comes a sajoke screen, behind which the automobile grows more and more encumbered
with metala,,which not only fails to increase its reliability but lowers, in many
.cases, itsdperational qualities.
In the automobile industry, it is impossible to limit the problem-to con-
siderations of durability norms. There are certain dynamic factors, depending
on the conditions under which loaded vehicles operate, which make the designer's
task very difficult. A mere computation of minimum durabilit
norms i.
1
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360344-0
OONF!OpNT j
CONFIDENTIAL
While minimum durability norms for mobile loads have not yet been ade-
quately worked out, a number of experimental methods devised in various branches
of the automobile industry, such as the use of tensometers, make it possible to
gauge the tension in various parts of a vehicle during its motion under any con-
ditions.
It is impossible to give a ready-made prescription for the solution of?this
problem without examining the actual process of production within the plant.
The present article will touch upon only a few possibilities of reducing the
weight of vehicle parts.
The slightest reduction in the weight of a single part makes possible the
reduction of other parts as well. This process, gradually extended, can bring
about substantial changes in the design of a vehicle both in quality and quan-
tity.
By way of example, the possibility of weight reductions will be pointed
out in the case of the ZIS-150 truck. Its piston pin has an external diameter
of 28 millimeters and weighs 220 grams, whereas the piston pin in other engines,
similar to the ZIS-150 in their dimensions, is only 25.4 millimeters in diameter
and weighs 200 grams. Insofar as the larger diameter gives greater wear resist-
ance, there is no objection to it; but a larger external diameter ought to be
accompanied by a smaller thickness in the walls and possibly a lighter weight.
Nevertheless; the thickness of the ZIS-150 pin is greater than than of the
others. It might seem that a saviag of 120 grams on a six-cylinder engine is
too small a quantity to be worth mentioning. However, since the annual output
of ZIS-150 trucks is about 100,000 vehicles, the saving would amount to 12,000
kilograms of highgrade metal.
4'
A more important consideration in this case is that the piston pin together
with the piston completes 4,000 strokes per minute and places certain dynamic
loads on the crank and piston system. Even a slight decrease in the-initially
moving weights and, correspondingly, in the forces of inertia, would permit a
slight reduction in the weight of the piston rod and, consequently, a change
in the design of the crankshaft (with a view to reducing its weight) and its
supports. A cargful'computation will show that the 20 grams saved on the piston
would lead to kilograms of savings in related parts. Regularity of operation
in a given mechanism depends in large measure on the toughness of the'parts and
supports rather than on their amount of metal. Toughness is achieved not through
quantities of metal but the proper distribution of supports, such as stiffening
ribs, balance beams, etc._
The ZIS-150 engine has a cast-iron engine breather, instead w the usual
type made of thin iron sheeting, which is 600 grams heavier than the usual type.
An annual saving of 6Q,000 kilograms of metal could be-effected in this instance;
this saving would meah 4i additional yearly output of 15 trucks.
The ?importance'of'',tedpcing the weight of the ZIS-150 ngine will be appre-
ciated when one considers''that its drys '-,ht is 425 kilograms or, in terms of
specific weight, 4.'1'2 kilograms per horsepower. Compared with it, the GAZ-51
engine, which is a highly reliable mechanism, has a dry weight of only 235 kilo-
grams, or a specific weight of 3.65 kilograms per horsepower.
It is well known that as the horsepower of an engine increases, its specific
weight decreases. However, if the specific weight of the GAZ-51 is accepted for
an engine like the ZIS-150, which is 90 horsepower, the result will be an engine
weighing only 300 kilograms L..ic7, representing a reduction of 125 kilograms.
The objection may be raised that two different classes of engines are under con-
sideration. However, what the.?country needs is not a class of engines but a re-
liable, ? cheap, and economical truck:
CONFIDENTIAL
.
CONFIDENTIAL
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360344-0
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360344-0
CO~dFlC~~,T",L
For a number if years, single-disc clutches have been used in vehicles of
all classes. The possibility of installing this type of clutch in heavy ve-
hicles has been demonstrated in practice at the Yaroslavl' Automobile Plant.
The double-disc clutch used in the ZIS-150 is an outmoded mechanism. Expen-
sive to produce and difficult to.operate, it weighs about 20 kilograms, with-
out the housing. A single-disc clutch designed for a torque of 31 kilograms
per minute, weighs only 10 xilograms.
The housing of the five-step ZIS-150 transmission weighs about 104.5 kilo-
grams. However, there are trucks similar in type to the ZIS-150, whose trans-
mission housings do not exceed 82 kilograms, yet do not suffer frequent break-
age. It would therefore be possible to reduce the weight of the ZIS-150 hous-
ing without sacrificing reliability. On the other hand, ZIS-150 housings have
been known to break on occasions at the point of contact with the clutch; this
may be attributed primarily to the excessive weight of the housing.
The rear axle of the ZIS-150, without the wheels and spring, weighs. about
470 kilograms. Under dynamic load, this weight causes considerable tension in
the axle housing and the frame. It is quite significant that in some trucks
the cast axles have been known to break while the vehicles, without load, were
in motion. This tends to prove that the dynamic forces exerted were the basic
cause for the breakage and that.it is pointless to try to strengthen the parts
through a mechanical addition of metal. On the contrary, metal should be elim-
inated wherever it is unnecessary. Moreover, the question whether axles made
by casting are to be used in the future should be carefully re-examined.
Having analyzed and summed up the weight of the various parts of the ZIS-
150 truck, one may conclude that its weight could be reduced 500 kilograms.
Attention must also be drawn to the production of fastening parts. In
some vehicle parts, bolts may be seen protruding 15-20 millimeters from the
nut. No kind of standardization can justify such waste.
T'te solution of the I -oblem of reducing the weight of vehicles must follow
certain basic and definite lines. Mathematical and experimental tasks must. be
carried out with a view to changing the configurations and cross sections of
parts, as well as the elimination of unnecessary metal. As a corollary, there
must be a radical revision of the designs of antiquated and overweight mechan-
isms. New methods of heat and mechanical processing of metal which would raise
the reliability of parts must be worked out and introduced. New high-grade
metals, such as modified iron and ligLt alloys, must be introduced in all the
elements of a design whenever possible. Parts produced in accordance with these
methods must be subjected to thorough laboratory investigation, then tested in
trucks and automobiles under operating conditions.
In carrying out the above tasks, one must allow for a certain amount of ex-
perimental risk. If any parts should prove over-reduced and not reliable enough,
they may be strengthened after appropriate experiments.
In experimentation, one must not be deterred by the possibility of increas-
ing the cost of an experimental machine through the wide use of light alloys and
high-grade steels. Only after the vehicle has been produced and testeLi, can the
total effect be gauged and the necessary corrections made.
CU tDENTI
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/07/22 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600360344-0