Quote Originally Posted by rxforspeed View Post
So I take it your punch presses don't have a massive flywheel like a small manual punch (the kind I have more experience operating)? Are these massive industrial punches or smaller interchangable die style punches?
These were built to replace the massive flywheel manually operated types. They are more along the lines of the smaller type but the dies are a custom build.

Picture a 6 inch cylinder driven by a two stage pump on a 15 hp electric motor. That pushes the punch. The other one has two 4 inch cylinders in parallel driven the same way.

One is designed to punch a set of holes through a 1/4 x 6 x 6 inch piece. The other will take two pieces of 1/4 x 2 x 2 angle and punch a set of holes along with shearing the ends at 45 degrees on one step.

The plate punch has a feeder that uses an air cylinder to push the part into place from a stack. The angle punch uses a hydraulic cylinder to feed the parts.

Both machines have sensors, (pressure, mechanical, IR ) to control the operation and check for mechanical errors, like a stuck part or no parts.
Sorry to jump off topic, but this is an area that really interests me...
It is your thread