Design and Operation
A typical power hammer consists of a frame, an anvil, and a reciprocating ram holding a hammer head or die. The workpiece is placed on the lower anvil or die and the head or upper die strikes the workpiece. The power hammer is a direct descendant of the trip hammer, differing in that the power hammer stores potential energy in an arrangement of mechanical linkages and springs, in compressed air, or steam, and by the fact that it accelerates the ram on the downward stroke. This provides more force than simply allowing the weight to fall. Earlier designs like trim hammer, steam drop hammers, board or strap hammers, use the power source to raise the ram, but let its fall be propelled solely by gravity.
Power hammers are rated by weight of moving parts that act directly on the work piece. This includes the weight of the parts that may consist of upper die, ram, mechanical linkage arms and spring(s) or ram, piston, and associated connecting rod(s). Specific design elements are dictated by the power source. The largest power hammer was powered by steam and was rated at 125 short tons (113 t).
Read more about this topic: Power Hammer
Famous quotes containing the words design and/or operation:
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“It requires a surgical operation to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding. The only idea of wit, or rather that inferior variety of the electric talent which prevails occasionally in the North, and which, under the name of “Wut,” is so infinitely distressing to people of good taste, is laughing immoderately at stated intervals.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)