§ 32. Mr. Cleaverasked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science what contribution the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has made to the problems of increasing the accuracy of gear-cutting machines.
§ Mr. Denzil FreethResearch and development work at the National Physical Laboratory and the National Engineering Laboratory has contributed to a tenfold increase in the accuracy of large modern gears over the past twenty years. Gears up to 16 feet in diameter can now be made with an error of one quarter of one-thousandth of an inch from the true form and spacing of the teeth.
§ Mr. CleaverIs my hon. Friend aware that his statement will be greatly welcomed by industrial interests in Birmingham? Can he state what further developments are taking place?
§ Mr. FreethYes. The automatic error-correcting system recently developed by the National Engineering Laboratory has been applied to a gear-cutting machine. As a result of collaboration with a British firm, gears of exceptionally high precision can now be produced economically by industry.