[TheForge] Re: But how fast does the Alldays & Onions go?

[ries]

On Jul 11, 2008, at 11:00 AM, Mike Spencer wrote:



And anyhow, I *like* futzing with old machinery.  Someone posted here
(was it Ries, maybe?) slagging the old behemoth hammers and touting the
slick, highly engineered, modern ones.  Quite right in terms of
efficiency, productivity, business acumen etc.  But not nearly as much
fun for the up-front money.

Wasnt me- Specially because there are NO highly engineered, slick,  
modern ones.
Well, there are those new utility air hammers, like Big Blu's, but  
they are hardly slick. Slap an air cylinder on a welded frame- its not  
exactly engineering.
The closest to a real "new" hammer in some time is John Larson's Iron  
Kiss. Which is well thought out, but trys to look old on purpose.

I may have expressed a preference for good old 1920's style self  
contained air hammers, as opposed to 1890's style mechanicals, but  
thats about as far as I went.
The current crop of chinese self contained hammers from Anyang and  
Stryker, while, new, are based almost exactly on pre second world war  
chambersburg hammers.
Nothing modern about them.

There is one style of mechanism that I could see getting excited  
about, though, as a modern hammer- problem is, nobody makes one yet.
Its the new japanese designed and made mechanical (as opposed to  
hydraulic) presses, that are starting to be used for some stamping  
processes.
These are high torque, low rpm, direct drive servo motors- no  
flywheels, no hydraulic cylinders, no air cylinders. No cycling- they  
hit when, and how, you tell em to, with programmable strokes.
They are just starting to revolutionise the stamping industry, but the  
basic principle, while certainly not cheap, could be applied to forging.
http://www.aida-global.com/Metalforming-Solutions/servopro.cfm

Ries



Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/