Baixie's PLC Forging Hammer and It's Application

It is expounded the latest development and application of Baixie's PLC forging hammer. With the features of high accuracy, high reliability and high performance-price ratio, the hammer can meet the needs of high efficiency, energy saving and environmental protection, and be considered as modern precise forging equipments with wide application.

Foreword: The forging hammer is the pioneer of other forging equipments, it has been more than 100 years since it was produced. Although all kinds of new technologies and equipments of forging forming were developed unceasingly, the forging hammer has not lost its importance because of its advantages, such as simplified construct, easy operation, rapid forming speed, wide application and lesser investment and so on. Especially,since the PLC forging hammer came out, the forging hammer has been revived in the modern forging industry.
With the outstanding advantage of rapid forging speed, the dies of forging hammer can contact with short time which is suitable for the case of the parts be filled the die with rapid forming speed, such as forging the parts with complicated shape and weight tolerance requirement?Due to the speciality of flexibility, high speed and wide application, the hammers are called as "omnipotence" equipments, and they are suit to forge the parts with various kinds and small batches. Forging hammer is a kind of excellent metalforming equipment with high performance-price ratio.

On the basal advantages of flexibility and rapid forming speed in traditional, Baixie's PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammer is driven and controlled by the modern hydraulic pressure and electrical appliance; and not only has the simplified structure but also has the circumspect running monitoring system, malfunctions diagnosing system, automatic energy controlling system and PLC striking control system; and with all these features of high accuracy, high reliability and high performance-price ratio, the hammer can meet the needs of high efficiency, energy saving and environmental protection, and be considered as a modern precise forging equipments with wide application.

The construct feature of Baixie's PLC forging hammer
We can divide Baixie's PLC forging hammers into two series:PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammers and PLC hydraulic counterblow hammers:

Series of PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammers:
Baixie's PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammers are applied the unique fully hydraulic driving system which make the possibility of obtaining huge energy within rather short stroke, that is to say, it is possible to realize high speed forging in short stroke and high frequency unceasing forging. The feature of high flexibility and high speed has been greatly exerted.

The requirement of high accuracy has been guaranteed by U-shape integrated cast steel anvil and framework, easily dismounting and exchanging wide guide rail structure as well as die fixation and adjustment construct. The guide clearance can reach to 0.1mm, and the working accuracy, striking rigidity, striking efficiency and the performance of accuracy holding are more superior to the steam hammer; the working status of the power unit and the applied force status of the hammer rod has been greatly improved. In general, simplified construct is the precondition of high reliability.

PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammer is controlled by advanced tapered valve, driven by combined cylinder with the double anti-leakage technique and used integrated hydraulic system to realize main oil circuit connecting without pipe and simplify the system structure. Furthermore, Modern electronic technique is widely applied to improve the control performance and increase the working reliability. All above characteristics are the foundation of successfully applying the forging hammer in the modern forging industry.

Series of PLC hydraulic counterblow hammer:
U-shape high rigidity casting-steel framework and adjustable actinoid wide guide construction are used in the type of CDK hydraulic counterblow hammers on which the one sided guide clearance can be accurate to 0.1mm, especially, it is suitable for precise forging. The hammer tup and the framework will strike each other with equal energy even if the stroke and speed of the framework are less, besides that the frame is much heavier than the tup and the ratio can reach to 10:1. All these ensure the hammer's stability when it strikes. There are several anti-vibration pad filled in compressed air under the lower anvil. When the framework is hydraulically forced down, the oil pressure also compressed the air in the anti-vibration pad. As releasing the hydraulic pressure, the whole framework is lifted up by the compressed air at the same time while the upper hammer tup is driven down by high pressure oil, and they strike together for the purpose of forging operation.

The hydraulic driving system makes use of separate side-set design, concentrated control and connecting all the pipelines with flexible tube, which completely solve the reliable influence to the hydraulic system when hammer working.

Baixie's PLC forging hammer is called as the modern forging equipment, not only because of its simplified & reliable structure and flexible & fast operating feature, but also for being equipped with the on-line electronic monitor system for pressure, temperature and cleanness as well as the energy automatically control system of programmable striking. Well running environment of hydraulic system is the precondition of normal working of forging hammer; the control system with accurate striking energy not only can reduce the vibration and noise generated by surplus striking energy but also increase the hammer's operational reliability and die life and further improve forging's quality and decrease the operators' skill requirement.

The performance and feature of Baixie's PLC forging hammer

A. High efficiency
The reason why the forging hammer can be widely used is that it has the main technical feature of flexibility and high speed. Due to its unique driving structure, it is possible to get huge energy in a short stroke, that is, high speed forging in short stroke and high frequency continuous forging are the reality, which is the precondition of fast deformation of the blank. This is the unique advantage of PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammer over any other forging equipments.

B. Energy saving
Energy saving is the main reason why the hydraulic can be developed fleetly. The PLC forging hammer can reach 65% drive efficiency, over 30 times more efficient than other traditional steam hammers that only have 2% energy utilization. The energy-saving is outstanding. Besides that the hammers' striking efficiency can up to 95% while the traditional hammers' striking efficiency only has 85%.
The energy saving also means controlling the striking energy precisely, and it is wasteful to strike with surplus energy.

C. Environmental protection
No "three wastes" discharge and automatic control of striking energy can avoid noise problem caused by surplus striking energy, and hydraulic shock absorber can reduce vibration by absorbing about 85% striking vibration, so the working condition is much improved. The forging hammer's tup of CDK and framework will strike each other with equal energy. The hammer will not impact foundation when striking, for there are several anti-vibration pads filled in compress air under the framework, therefore, all the impact vibration problem can be solved. CDK PLC hydraulic counterblow hammer is a significant modern forging equipment which can meet the environmental needs.

D. High accuracy
U-shape integrated cast steel structure and dismounting wide guide structure as well as die fixation and adjustment structure have guaranteed the requirement of high accuracy. Precisely controlling the striking energy and realizing programmable striking can avoid the unstable product quality caused by different operators with different techniques. The clearance of guide can reach to 0.1mm, and the working conditions, such as, working accuracy, striking rigidity, striking efficiency and accuracy repeatability are much better than steam hammer.

E. High reliability
By using integrated tapered valve hydraulic control system to greatly simplify the structure, which is the precondition of the operational reliability of forging hammer. Furthermore, modern electronic technique is widely applied to improve the control performance and increase the working reliability, all these are the foundation that the forging hammers are successfully applied in the modern forging industry.

F. High performance-price radio
Compared the cost of forging line which takes Baixie's PLC forging hammer as the core equipment with the forging line using the equal capacity of screw press or hot extrusion press, the radio is 1:2:3. Regardless of hammer power, steam-air hammer is cheaper than PLC forging hammer, but as a matter of fact, the driving system of the hammer must be taken into consideration, in this way, the vantage of PLC die forging hammer is much obvious.
The PLC hydraulic counterblow hammer not only has the high performance-price ratio, but also can reduce the investment of anti-vibration foundation, and also lessen the requirement of the forging shop. It is calculated that compared to the same kind of electro-hydraulic hammer, CDK can reduce the 1/3 investment cost only on equipment and foundation, if considering the investment of building new forging shop, the cost can be saved to 50%.

G. Lower using cost
The advanced PLC forging hammer is not only on the high efficiency, energy saving, no vibration and environmental protection, but also on controlling the striking energy efficiently. Supplying enough energy to make the forging parts forming but not more, not only can reduce the vibration, lessen the noise, improve the equipment reliability and also greatly increase the die-life.

H. Wide application
It is easy to explain how big the parts can be forged by an operator, while it is difficult to define the size by a forging hammer. The outstanding advantages of a forging hammer is fast striking speed and high striking frequency, which are most suitable for those parts needed to be forged many times and at rapid forming speed to fill in the mold cavities.
Due to fast forging speed and short die contact time, it is suitable for forging thin and light and cooling-fast forgings and at the same time it is good for improving die-life. When forging these kinds of forgings with complex shape and weight tolerance requirement, the forging hammer's performances and economic advantages are very obvious.

The forging hammer is the best equipment for forging industry and very suitable for the productions in small batches but various shapes.

I. Stable forging quality
When the forging hammer is operated manually, it can not guarantee to keep 100% same for each blank no matter how skilled the operator is, especially during shift operation it's more difficult to keep constant striking energy and striking numbers for the same parts. But by using Baixie's PLC fully hydraulic hammer, it is able to be kept the same forging procedure even if operated by different workers. For some special technologies of special parts, the forging procedure can be pre-programmed and digitally stored by PLC, and will be re-used for the same forgings afterwords.

Compared Baixie's PLC forging hammer with other forging equipments
Forging hammer, screw press and hot die forging press are considered as the current metalforming equipments at present. It is proved that they have different feature of technical application.
Forging hammer:

Due to the features of simplified construct, high productivity, lower cost and wide application, the hammers become the universal metalforming equipment at present.

Screw press:
The average unbalanced load capacity of the screw press is less than the hot die forging press and Baixie's PLC forging hammer. Therefore, screw press is not suitable to forge with several mold cavities, it is only suitable for the forging parts with single groove. When you use the screw press to complete finish forging, you must need other equipments to be as the accessorial equipments.

Because of the slow speed of sliding block and lower working frequency, screw press only can strike once with single groove. In the process of deformation with single striking, the middle of the blanks will be deformed largely and it easily flows to the horizontal direction to form large flash which is the reason why the metal can't be filled completely in the mold cavity, and this easily causes fold compared with using forging hammers. Especially, this disadvantage is obvious when forging the parts with complicated shape on the cross sections. At the same time, compared with Baixie's PLC forging hammer, the screw press has the disadvantage of lower flexibility, short die-life and can only forge parts with simplified construct, lower precision requirement and it also needs large deformation energy.

The striking energy and striking frequency of the screw press are controlled by the operator who operates according to their experiences. Compared to Baixie's forging hammer, it has lower control performance, unstable forging quality and can not be controlled automatically. So, it is suit to forge middle and small parts with small batches.

Hot die forging press:
Compared with Baixie's PLC forging hammer, the hot die forging press has stable stroke of sliding block and slow speed, and the blank can be completed scheduled deformation in once striking. In order to avoid forming large flash and the metals not filling in the mold cavity, you must require sequence of manufacturing blank to make the shape of the blanks be similar to the shape of the forging parts. Therefore, it is very important to design the sequence of die forging.

Baixie's PLC forging hammer has high striking frequency and the striking can be controlled by PLC according to the requirement of blank deformation. It is easy to operate the sequence of parts' pulling and rolling process by PLC forging hammer while it is difficult to operate these sequences by hot die forging press. So, when you want to forge kinds of long rod with different cross sections by hot die forging press, you also need other equipments, such as, air hammer, roll forging machine and flat forging machine to manufacture blank.

When forged by the hammer, the oxidation peel on the surface of the blank can be fetched down or blow off easily but it's difficult to operate by hot extrusion press, especially the oxidation peel on the upper and lower surfaces can be easily pressed into forgings' surface layer.
With the accurate guide system and combined die with guide setting, the hot die forging press can forge the parts with high accuracy, and due to the stable sliding stroke, the upper and lower die will not strike each other when working. Baixie's PLC forging hammer are applied the high rigidity framework, wide guide rail structure which can also ensure the parts with high accuracy, and with the controllable striking energy, the die can not be stroked by surplus energy.

The conversion of the forging equipments with similar capacity: 1T die forging hammer is corresponding to 10000KN hot die forging press, and is corresponding to 3500-4000KN screw press.

The application of Baixie's PLC forging hammer
As the feature of high efficiency, energy saving and high reliability of Baixie's PLC die forging hammer, the forging hammer has get the revival in current forging industry and its application has been proved by many practice.

1. In April 2005, Baixie's PLC fully-hydraulic die forging hammers have been taken as a core equipments serviced in two robotized precision forging lines in Meililong Kitchen Appliance (Suzhou) Co.,Ltd ( a Company invested entirely by American) .The two lines which were operated by one man were equipped with automatic machines containing of heating ,rolling, die forging and robot and so on. In particular, all the equipments were imported except Baixie's forging hammers.


2. In July 2005, Baixie's PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammer has been installed at Both-Well (Jiangyan) Steel Fittings Co.,Ltd which is the biggest supplier of water heating equipment, which resigned the purchase contracts of CHK 50 and CHK 100 respectively in September and October in 2006.


3. In March 2007 , it's the fifth time that Hebei Ouya Forging & Casting Co., Ltd purchased Baixie's CHK PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammer, they had purchased four set hammers successively from 2003 to 2006.


4. In September 2006, Baixie signed the Sales Contract of fully hydraulic die forging hammer which was sold as the tenth set in Hebei Province

5. In September 2006, Baixie's PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammers were installed in Fuzhou King Duan Industrical Co.,Ltd and Nanjing Libo Precision Forging Co.,Ltd.

6. In April 2004, the technology of Baixie's PLC forging hammer was successfully applied in the numerical control innovation of 80KJ steam-air hammer in Nanqi forging company, and since then, the hammer has been successfully applied for three years.

7. In April 2006, the first set CDK-100 hydraulic counterblow hammer of China was successfully applied in Changchun Yiqi Group, and it is used to forge precisely the wheel hubs, gear wheels, the connections of pushing rods and the clutch bushes.

In December 2006, the second set CDK-100 PLC hydraulic counterblow hammer was installed in Ningbo Simaike Mechine Co.,Ltd (America Company), and it is used to forge pedrail connection plates of engineer machinery.
8. In November 2006, Ruian Nanfang Forging Co., Ltd and Shanghai Changte Forging Co., Ltd respectively purchased the contract of CHK-31.5 PLC hydraulic die forging hammer with Baixie forging hammer Co., Ltd during the eighth China National Forge Fair. In December, Nangong Jingqiang Connecting Rod Co.,Ltd in Hebei Province ordered CHK-31.5 PLC hydraulic die forging hammer from Baixie. Before that, this company bought the same kind forging hammer from German.

Analysing and comparing Baixie's hammers with other metalforming equipments to make spare parts forming
The forming of the pulling fork of gearbox's catch shift: the pulling forks are originally forged by friction press with twice heating. The rate of the finished products could only get up to 90%. It is difficult for the pulling forks to fill in the mould cavities, for the thin connecting peel in the middle of the pulling fork which result in the parts' temperature gets down rapidly, the lower flowing property of the metals, slow striking speed of the friction press as well as the large resistance of the parts forming. When using the 25KJ hydraulic hammer with two mold cavities and three times striking to instead, the outline of forgings is very clarity and fullness and the rate of the finished products can get up to 98%. Compared with 25KJ hydraulic hammer, when we use the 1000T friction press, both the energy consuming and the manufacturing cost are rather high but the die life is very short.
At present Hebei Ouya forging Co.,Ltd has equipped four forging manufacturing lines with our hydraulic hammers as their core equipments.




The forming of stainless steel knives and scissors were originally produced by fraction press. But due to the thin workpieces and large resistance of forming, the thickness of the flash can exceed to 1mm and the accuracy of the parts is lower as well as large deformation after being trimmed, the parts' shape and dimension can only be guaranteed by the subsequent exactly pressing, and after these steps, we also need a lot of time to burnish. When choosing the electro-hydraulic hammer to forge, the flash of forging parts can be guaranteed within 0.5mm with small deformation after being trimmed. And the shape and size precision of the parts can be assured, due to the hammers' fast deforming speed and accurately controlling of striking energy. There is no other sequences of accurate press after being trimmed and the workload of burnish has been greatly reduced. In general, the process route of manufacturing will be greatly shorted by using the PLC die forging hammer.
comparative items the forging line used friction press the forging line used PLC forging hammer
the forming technologies of stainless steel knives and scissors to feed machine with rod material- to make blanks and to heat by hot-rolling mill- heated for the second time - performed by 300T friction press - to trim - to heat for the third time - to deform finally by the 300T friction press- to trim for the second time-to finish by sizing press to cut the plank - to heat - to forge by 25KJ PLC forging hammer with twice striking and two mold cavities - to trim
heating times three times heating Once heating
the quantity of operators 10-12 4-5
the ratio of area which need to be used 3 1
the ratio of
energy consumed more than 3 1
the ratio of die-life 1 2
By using the PLC forging hammer, the 30% of manufacturing cost can be saved, besides that, the heating times also be reduced about two times and the parts' temperature can get down relatively, so the oxidizing of microelement of the forging surface caused by heating has been lessen greatly, the chemical performance of forging material can be guaranteed and all these avoid rust during usage.

With the features of high accuracy, high reliability and high performance-price ratio,
the hammer can meet the needs of high efficiency, energy saving and environmental protection, and be considered as a modern precise forging equipment with wide application. The Confederation Of Chinese Metalforming Industry recommend Baixie's PLC forging hammers as key products to Chinese forging companies by the website of www.duanxie.com and the meeting of forging industry; and the national professional newspapers and magazines, such as << Forging And Stamping>>, << The Forging Technique>>, << The forging Equipment And Manufacturing Technique>>, << The Metallurgy Newspaper of China >> and <>, etc, also made their special introduction and report about Baixie's PLC fully hydraulic die forging hammer.
In 2002, Baixie's PLC forging hammer has been ranked as the Key and Science Project of "the fifteenth project" of Jiangsu Province by Jiangsu Science And Technology Department; In October 2004, it's ranked as the high-new technical product of Jiangsu Province. In June 2005,Baixie's PLC forging hammer was ranked as the national key and new product by the Ministry Of Commerce, the Ministry Of Science And Technology, the Environment Protection Head Office and the Quality and Intendance Administration of China; In August 2006, Baixie company has been ranked as the High & new technology company in Jiangsu Province.

Haian Baixie Forging Hammer Co.,Ltd sincerely hopes to cooperate with the companies which have the ideal to develop and research for Chinese forging industry. Baixie will supply the electro-hydraulic forging hammer to more customers with the features of high efficiency, energy saving, high accuracy and high reliability by means of its technical advantage and absorbing the advanced experience of designing and manufacturing forging hammer from China and abroad as well as taking the high & new technique as his starting point and developing direction. And Baixie wishes to make his contribution to the forging industry with his customers.

Changlong Zhang