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Press Design for the 21st Century - Part 1 Click for Part 2 ...

WPE Innovation :

The Fast Forging Press

The most advanced forging press in the world - Yours!

Wepuko Pahnke Engineering takes pride in our engineering capabilities to produce the most modern forging production hardware and software following in the footsteps of the renowned German press manufacturing company, Pahnke Engineering. Our capabilities extend also to the rebuilding and refurbishment of existing installations, be it the smallest of projects such as a new upper die rotate system to the most complex of complete press rebuilds, WPE is able to offer solutions.

PRESS DESIGN ELEMENTS

The free-forging press must be designed and built to meet a host of rigorous demands. For example:

  • Adequate rigidity in design and manufacture and safety of operation to withstand very large eccentric loads, abrupt load changes, radiant heat from ingots, and other extremely unfriendly operating conditions.
  • High precision forging capability to ensure improved material yield and reduced machining allowances.
  • High speeds of operation to forge the work piece into the desired form within a limited allowable working temperature range and with minimum possible re-heat times.
  • Reduction of labor.
  • Decreased power consumption.

Advanced Engineering Features :

We can offer many forging press and manipulator systems, which satisfy the Press Design criteria and offer State-of-the-Art features such as:

  • Sturdy and streamlined press frame construction,
  • Sinusoidal cycle drive system that ensures shock-free, high-speed, and high-precision forging operation,
  • Application specific computer control that makes ideal forging operation possible,
  • Other user-oriented design considerations to meet a wide range of clients special requirements.

"Pull Down" type Press

The pull down type press, with its center of gravity at a low level relative to ground level, undergoes only an extremely small displacement in its center of gravity even under eccentric loading and hence remains free of vibration even during high speed operation. Its forging operation, therefore, is very stable.

Nearly all of its oil hydraulic equipment, including the cylinder, control valve, piping etc., are installed under the floor, leaving a wide open working floor area around the press and thus ensuring a high level of safety against oil leakage and fire.

With the press standing low above the floor, the forge building can also be built low with consequent savings in construction cost, not to mention the other advantage of a lower overhead traveling crane.

Pull Down Press

"Push Down" type Press

This forging press employs the same 2 column design as the pull down type press.

The 2 column design makes it easy to ensure the equal and uniform distribution of load between he two columns. The rectangular column sections are advantageous in withstanding eccentric load. The press's two columns are arranged so as to ensure the optimum angle relative to the manipulator and operator position.

Compared to the pull down type, the push down press has a smaller foundation depth and is therefore more economical in terms of construction cost.

Also, with its moving parts being smaller in weight, the press offers good response characteristic. In terms of press style, the push down type can be said to find universal applications.

Push Down Press

PRESS STRUCTURAL DESIGN FEATURES

Press Frame

The forging press frame can be subjected to intermittent and heavy eccentric loads and is thus exposed to the most rigorous working conditions. It is therefore the most important member of the press fabrication and requires detailed design considerations to achieve maximum reliability and durability.

1. Mono-frame Construction (for smaller presses)

The press frame is a cast steel mono-block construction shaped like a chain link. It has high structural rigidity at the transition between the upper and lower crosshead beams and the column. This gives an ideal frame profile with minimum stress concentrations.

These rectangular columns have a better rigidity than conventional circular columns and the column guide surfaces are flat, resulting in very low guide block pressures.

The cast steel frame is designed to have a low working stress and hence minimum deformation under load. This ensures a high level of forging precision. The casting employed is completely solid and thus has a high heat capacity and hence low local thermal stress even when exposed to the high radiant heat experienced during forging.

Mono-frame Construction

2. Pre-stressed Frame Construction (for larger presses)

This type of frame employs a pre-stressed frame construction and is useful where large, heavy objects cannot be transported.

The pre-stressed press frame consists of two upper and lower crosshead beams with two right and left uprights, usually with a "C" cross section. These are all securely held together with high tensile pre-stressed steel tie rods.

The tie rod pre-tension is designed to be about twice the normal maximum working load to prevent the structural joints from opening under exposure to eccentric load.

The pre-stressed press frame is also normally made of cast steel and designed to keep the working stress to a similarly low level as the mono-frame design and, by employing the simplest possible frame profile, ensures freedom from deformation under loading as well as from thermal stress.

  • Column Guide Designed to Absorb Eccentric Load

The right and left columns of the press frame slide upwards and downwards in their vertically extended guide sleeves, which are provided on both sides of the press bed. Guide blocks, which are at four places at the upper, lower, right and left sections of each guide sleeve are designed to be capable of completely stopping the entire eccentric load acting on the press frame. The upper and lower guide blocks are spaced vertically to minimize the load applied at each point. As the column is rectangular in cross section, its surface and the corresponding guide block sliding surface have low bearing pressure, and thus wear due to sliding friction is minimized.

  • Main Cylinder Highly Resistant to Eccentric Load

The major structural design feature of the main cylinder is that the main ram moving in the main cylinder is not directly connected to the press frame, but instead, the forging pressure exerted by the hollow main ram is transmitted to the press frame by way of a self aligning connecting rod contained in the ram. This connecting rod has spherical surfaces at its upper and lower ends enabling free oscillating motion. The press column guides are provided with a sufficient clearance to absorb thermal expansion between the frame and base. When subjected to eccentric load, therefore, the frame becomes inclined by the column guide clearance and correspondingly so does the connecting rod. With the main cylinder and main ram designed and built as mentioned above, however, only a small amount of the horizontal component of pressure stroke is exerted on the ram, as a side force. Even under severe working conditions involving the many eccentric press force strokes, the packing and bush remain free of undue strain and suffer only minimal wear.

Forging for the 21st Century continued...

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