- Joined
- Feb 8, 2014
- Messages
- 11,187
I agree. I looked around for a high speed punch press with a 3/8 or 1/2 inch stroke and couldn't find anything in the 1 to 3 ton range. The design was to run at up to 600 hits/min, but it really seems happiest at about 280 to 300. I accidently ran the ram at 2500 hits/min for a few seconds so I know it will do it. The limitation on speed is really the inability to feed any faster with the current set up, the ram actually strokes at an equivalent speed of about 1000 hits/min, but the ram has to wait for the feed to position the material before it can stroke. The feed is also variable, on-the-fly, from 0.75 to 6 inches so that adds another layer of complexity to the mix. The feed is actually pulling the material off of the roll and any faster I start getting miss-feeds. The feed rolls are already marking the material so I really can't up the pinch pressure any more. The material handling is outside the scope of this project, so it is what it is. The snap through height is also variable depending on the product they want to run, it punches 3 different patterns depending on the shut height.
I bought the punches and die buttons from Dayton Lamina. To reduce mass I decided to not use a normal die set, and to attach the punch holder directly to the ram base. I can have the punch holder and die holder out and on the surface grinder in about 15 minutes. In this case, the die holder assembly actually sits on what would be a bolster plate in a normal press system.
This press has to be completely guarded because it is one hand (more like 1 finger) operation. https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/servo-punch-press.72601/page-2#post-618498
Bottom line is that this ain't a normal press, so that's the reason it was purpose designed and built from the ground up.
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