Are you doubtful between mechanical press and hydraulic press?
Are you doubtful about the press to choose? Mechanical press or hydraulic press?
Ask to Mecolpress, you will have no more hesitations!
You have just got a new commission and you need a new press for hot forging. Are you sure that you can identify the press that best suits your needs?
Typical request
It often happens that a Customer, or potential one, comes to us with the part he desires to forge. Usually it’s about complex situations, very far from standard applications. That’s exactly why the Customer asks for our help and support.
If the Customer is not a newcomer in the forging world, he usually arrives in Mecolpress with clear and straight idea about the type of press he wants. But very often it happens that he will change his view after having the possibility to get in contact with our forging know-how!
You ask for a mechanical press but you need an hydraulic one!
For example, some weeks ago two different customers came to visit us bringing some sampling to be forged. They were sure to ask a quotation for a mechanical press, they realized instead that the right machine for their situation was a hydraulic one!
Both our customers had the chance to test new dies, only 4 hours were needed for the preparation and installation of the dies and to run some tests. Even though the furnace was not the best one for their kind of production, because it’s a furnace that Mecolpress uses for testing, the machine gave a flash-free part in only 4 hours, with a saving of about 30% of material and with a quality definitely superior than the one they could achieve using a mechanical press.
Moreover, it is important to take into consideration the limits of the mechanical press:
- Since the part is not balanced, the mechanical press should use all its possible force to forge it.
- Working in this way the risk to run into damages or machine breakdown becomes greater.
On the contrary, The ME hydraulic press can forge the part better. The forged parts which required more force used however less than 200 tons on a punch, therefore it consists of a forces distribution that is totally different compared to the traditional mechanical press.
Often the customer is skeptical towards the hydraulic press, but just because he is not familiar with it!
Find out more about the hydraulic presses
The hydraulic presses patented by Mecolpress are suitable for the hot forging of standard parts or special parts in brass and aluminum. The dies closure force is higher than the one of the traditional mechanical presses and the independent and controlled movements of the ram and of the extruders allow to hot forge also complex parts without flash.
These are oleodynamic presses provided with coring tools combinable till to a maximum of 5 punches (4 horizontal and one vertical) suitable for the hot forging of brass, aluminum, copper and other materials.
Compared to the traditional mechanical presses these presses have different advantages, including:
- Reduced vibrations and noises.
- No foundations are required.
- Higher flexibility: there are no mechanical connections between tooling and ram; this implicates that you can decide speed, force, position and movement sequence for each punch independently. The result is the possibility to decide how to let the material flow, this helps the part production with a better quality level.
- Ease of tooling: easy access to the forging area and automatic adjustment of punches strokes from the panel that cancels the mechanical adjustment on the spines (for example insertion of spacer).
- The press is easy and intuitive to be used even without a great experience in the forging field. Together with the machine a lifelong service via teleservice and phone assistance is provided.
Some practical examples about the choice for a hydraulic press.
- Hydraulic press ME150: this is a quite small machine and often we suggest it to who has no experience in the hot forging field.
- Hydraulic press ME 250: let’s get serious!
Example: are you undecided if you want to buy a 400t mechanical press or a ME250 hydraulic press?
If you have small and easily to force parts to be produced in huge quantities and in series maybe the choice of a mechanical press is the most suitable, but if you have a part that is lightly more complicated, probably you need an hydraulic one. In this case, we are sure that a test here in Mecolpress will remove any doubt!
- Hydraulic press ME from 450tons onwards: This press is more efficient, more cost-effective, it allows to save material, to increase the productivity, it is more convenient, more silent, no foundation pit is required and despite of what our competitors affirm, the energy consumption is not high. In fact, this consideration comes from the fact that just the installed power is taken into consideration.
Did you carry out a forging simulation and forging tests?
In order to choose the right press it is surely helpful to carry out a forging simulation, our technical office can support the customer during the process for choosing the machine with a software analysis of material flow, in order to carry out a sort of “virtual pre-acceptance” of the plant.
Once that the forging simulation is successfully over, then the next step is a real test in our factory. Indeed we have available machines devoted for the forging tests, this is a very important aspect for the customer that often gives him the possibility to invest in a more aware and motivated way. Touching the forged part doesn’t leave no room for doubt!
Being able to satisfy and fully understand the customer needs, to demonstrate and propose our most suitable solutions with concrete tests thanks to the machines and toolings we have available in Mecolpress for the forging tests is for us matter of pride.
With or without flash?
When you have to face a forging project for a new piece, the first step to take is to make a simulation by means of forging software and to decide whether to set the simulation with or without flash.
With or without flash?
Start with the forging simulation
In general terms we can affirm that thin-thickness pieces and material movements in different directions or with sudden dimension changes can give defects in flash free forging.
If the geometry is uniform and the section variations are contained, you can think of dealing with a flash free project.
It is true in all cases that starting a flash free project can allow evaluations that push to optimize the geometries of the piece (if it is possible to operate on the outer geometry) or it can drive the next analysis with flash.
A first flash free step involves certainly reduced calculation times and allows an evaluation of the punches forces and dies closure that can approximatively be considered valid in general.
Suitable for forging with flash
Here above a geometry that very hardly is fit for a flash free forging
Suitable for flash-free forging
In this case, the success of a flash free project is very likely.
Is the press you have chosen suitable for forging your piece?
Secondly, it is necessary to roughly estimate if the analyzed piece is workable for the considered machine model.
At this stage you need to have a database showing the average pressures on half dies and on punches.
For this purpose, as the simulation history evolves, it is very useful to keep an Excel file in which the results in terms of forces are summarized in average pressures on half dies and punches.
This procedure allows you to understand at a glance if the result of a simulation can be considered valid or may be affected by calculation errors. Obviously, more cases are available more is likely to have reliable results, because the geometry of the piece strongly affects the force on each element of the die and therefore in the evaluation it is necessary to consider pieces with similar morphological characteristics.
Once the geometry of the piece is drawn, including the desired corings, it is necessary to obtain by subtraction the geometry of die and punches.
Firstly, however, the shape has to be scaled to take into consideration the fact that the formation occurs at a high temperature, while the drawing dimensions are valid for pieces at ambient temperature.
The typical brass value for forging is 1.012, while in the case of aluminum the factor 1.010 is generally used. With an Excel sheet, you can therefore estimate the diameter and length of the billet of first attempt.
For flash-free forging choose the hydraulic presses
Mecolpress hydraulic presses of ME series are the best solution for the forging of a part of brass, aluminum, or of other materials, without flash.
The closing force of the dies, higher than the one of the traditional mechanical presses, and the independent and controlled movement of the ram and of the extruders allow the hot forging of even complex parts without flash.
ME hydraulic presses have proved to be unbeatable in the forging of parts having some complexities.
For example, if you have to forge gate valves, our ME presses allow to forge these valves totally without flash, with very high precision, without the risk of defects caused by brass flow in the die.
In addition, even the production is higher compared to the one allowed by the traditional method with eccentric mechanical presses and with bell tool.
A ME350-4G240 hydraulic press, for example, can forge two-inch gate vales without flash, without the help of special tools, and with a productivity of about 800 parts/hour.
Another significant and practical example is that with a ME hydraulic press you can hot forge 4 brass parts at a time without flash!
Hydraulic Press ME100, the SuperFast!
Forge up to 60 pieces per minute without flash!
Our range of hot forging hydraulic presses ME has been enriched with the latest model ME100. It is a compact machine, dedicated to the forging of low-weight complex pieces, with extremely high productivity.
Mecolpress patented hydraulic presses, suitable for hot forging of standard and special brass or aluminium pieces.
This clamping force is higher than those of traditional mechanical presses. Independent & controlled movements of the ram and punches allow for flash-less hot forging also of complex pieces.
In addition to the ME150, ME250, ME350, we now also offer the ME100:
- 100 Tons of die closing force;
- 30 Tons for each of the punches (there can be up to 5)
- Forge in single or double figure, horizontally or vertically, and it is Super-Fast!
We tested it up to 30 strokes per minute and of course … it was promoted with full score!
As for all our ME hydraulic presses, the range of pieces that can be forged is very wide.
Here is a photo of typical brass parts that can be forged with this press:
Some info as an example:
– it can print ball valve bodies up to 3/4 inch, without flash (in single figure), or 1/2 inch in double figure.
– Accepts dies size 180x180mm.
– Punches stroke: 75mm.
Mecolpress has in fact the skills and the appropriate structure to make you ad hoc consultancy. Through the drawing of the piece you want to forge, we can perform a die simulation through the dedicated software in our internal technical office.
It will also be possible, if necessary, to carry out a real forging test of your piece thanks to the machines that we always have available at our company to carry out forging tests. We are thus able to offer you the machine, or the most suitable forging line for your needs.
And if the right press for you was not the ME100, we are always able to make the specific proposal for the needs of each customer, because Mecolpress has the widest range of hot forging presses of all!