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I Forge Iron

Screw Press action video


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The brave guy is the one using the preform press that seems to have jammed in continuous running ! :o Suppose it saves wear and tear on a clutch and brake!

Pretty easy to see why alot of the foging industry has gone overseas, those guys will be working like that all day for not much money.

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The brave guy is the one using the preform press that seems to have jammed in continuous running ! :o Suppose it saves wear and tear on a clutch and brake!

Pretty easy to see why alot of the foging industry has gone overseas, those guys will be working like that all day for not much money.


Yes, it's not much different from the videos and pics you see from the American factories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It seems the relatively low tech, dangerous jobs go to those places where people are desperate enough to do them, then the industry slowly matures and the work standards go up. At least, that is what happened in the UK and US, but it may not happen in the third world if the work force can't force better conditions.
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seems more like a punch press than anything else than i have seen
Worthwhile here maybe to explain the differences. One big difference is that a punch press has a fixed bottom of stroke. When you step on the pedal it will complete one stroke. Most cannot be stopped mid-stroke, modern air-clutch/air-brake machines can. The screw press can be stopped at any point the operator or the work determines. The screw press can be brought down very gently and back up.

In forging velocity and time in contact with the dies are both very important. By it's nature, a crankshaft press accelerates the ram to it's maximum velocity at about 90 degrees of stroke and then decelerates it to zero at the bottom of the stroke. The screw press, on the other hand, accelerates all the way down to a velocity of 3 - 6 feet per second and only stops when it runs into the work or the operator reverses it. This give a real impact usually only seen in hammers. The ram also bounces immediately back up so there is very little time in contact to suck the heat out of the work.

Because of it’s flexible operator-controlled stroke and the ability to hit hard or soft, it can readily be used for open-die forging just like a hammer. Nothing like that is possible with a punch press.

So, in the end it looks sorta like a punch press, works sorta like a hammer.

Hope this helps, Grant Edited by nakedanvil
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John N: Dangerous yes, but not as dangerous as it looks at first. It is hot work, so even if he gets a slug it wrong there's no harm. Could be interesting if the tooling came loose. Seen worse in some old Ford videos, HUGE press running continuously, two guys on one side reaching in with a piece of sheet steel, CA...RUNCR! Two guys on the other side reach in and take out a door panel.

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Hmmm, Still think its pretty lethal, waving tongs around a contstantly stroking press. We remove the constant cycle op from the controls we fit to presses. After a couple of hours if the bloke on the furnace chucks him a coldish billet it can kick out real easy if its not centered, or the press will jam, and continue to try and cycle. Just plain, not good practice.

Not as bad as the youtube vid of the 6 chinese guys sat between the dies that duck everytime the press cycles though! (search for chinese press automation and youll find it :D

(real nice screwpress youve got by the way!)

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A business acquaintance of mine was one of the earlier folks to move work to China in the 90's. He was walking through a factory in Shanghai one day, down a row of punch presses cycling automatically and noticed an older man sitting cross legged feeding blanks into a small press that made a tear drop form about 1/2"x1". His right hand was curled up in a useless ball and a tear drop shaped scar of the same size was on opposite sides of his right forearm. At least when he got hurt, they didn't give his job to someone else...

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