[TheForge] Build a power hammer?

[Jerry Frost]

From: "Grover Richardson" 
<grover.richardson at gtri.gatech.edu>


> Yes.  Having worked on several patents myself, the 
> idea of a patent is to
> get credit for your work.  And to make certain that 
> no one comes in and
> takes it, you try to make the patent as generic and 
> as wide applicable as
> possible.  As such, they can be very confusing.
>


Just so. Another purpose of a patent is to carve off a 
piece of the action by altering a marketable product, 
process, etc. sufficiently to be legal and 
insufficiently to be noticable to the customer.

The latter is why I think there are so many different 
systems to do exactly the same thing in, amongst other 
things, self contained pneumatic and hydraulic (fluid 
drive) power hammers. Some of the valves are 
indeciferably complicated compared to older, supposedly 
more "primitive" hammers. The 1902 massey patent I 
referred to or Mike Spencer's A & O  have exquisitely 
simple control valves. Later Massey patents and most 
other pneumatic hammer patents involved, invariably 
more complex, "improvements" to the control valves.

As you say though, Massey attempted to cover just about 
every way a simple 1/4 or 1/2 turn valve with an 
incorporated check valve could be used to control a 
power hammer, including rivet, drilling and breaking 
(jack) hammers. 1902 was pretty close to the time 
electricity was becoming a practical tool in industry. 
Till then, line drive mechanical and steam hammers were 
the norm.

Seeing as Massey hammers were one of the big names from 
the earliest days of steam hammers in England, I assume 
the 1902 design worked as well or better than the steam 
and mechanical hammers they replaced. By the 20's and 
30's Massey valve schemes were as outrageously complex 
as anybody's and if I recall correctly they were bought 
out by Nazel, Beche, or? (I don't recall who) After 
which the "improvements" in valving slowed WAY down. 
Stagnated?

The "improvements" to other aspects of hammers is 
pretty limited. After all, how much can you alter a 
heavy "C" or "A" frame, rams, guides, bearings and the 
like. The basic engineering for how heavy, rigid, the 
piston area, stroke, etc. were well established a long 
time before. The base power of one of these things is 
determined by psi x sq/in & weight and cycle speed, 
whether it's a master/slave system or steam/compressed 
air like early power hammers or modern Kinyon type 
hammers.

Anyway, the 1902 Massey patent has what I think is one 
of the simplest full function controls for a self 
contained power hammer.

Frosty
-------------------------------
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it ain't real.
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