The articles details how hydraulic presses work and of are the uses for hydraulic presses for a small to medium business.

The History of Hydraulic Press The hydraulic press was invented by Joseph Bramah way back in the Eighteenth century. The presses were then used by the textile industry for pressing cotton bales. The cotton bales were required to be made since the transportation costs of the pressed bales were much lower and easier for the industrialists at that time.

The Working Principle of Hydraulic Press

Hydraulic press operates on the Pascal’s law, which states that in a hydraulic system the pressure at each point is the same and that pressure applied to a confined fluid at any point is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid in all directions and acts upon every part of the confining vessel at right angles to its interior surfaces. That means it you apply pressure at one point in a system it will be transmitted in the system at all points, and this pressure will cause movement of elements that are free to move.

Uses of Hydraulic Press

The hydraulic press can be used for manufacture of many items and it can be automated so that the operations continue uninterrupted without human intervention. Let us see the example

Sheet Metal Component forming By Hydraulic Press

Let us assume that you want to manufacture a small steel cup from a sheet metal. A die will be made to the dimension of the cup. A sheet of stainless steel will be taken and a small circle will be cut of the sheet with the help of dies and hydraulic press.

This smaller circle will then be sent to another hydraulic press where the sheet will be pressed into a cup with the help of an upper die and a lower die. The small circular sheet cut (with help of another hydraulic press) will go between the two dies and by hydraulic pressure the upper die will come on lower die and the cup will be formed with the help of hydraulic press.

The work of cutting the circular piece and sending it to press can be automated in such a way that you will not require any operator and you can get 100s of cups with minimum human intervention. The entire sequence can be automated with hydraulic presses and hydraulic pushers so the metal moves at a predetermined rate and only the scrap and the finished material needs to collected.

Safety Precautions for Operating Hydraulic Presses

Since the hydraulic presses give you a brute force within a very small time, it is possible that there could be accidents if the work is not handled properly. The force could crush your hand completely like it works on the cup in a “flash of an eyelid” time. So take the following precautions while working hydraulic presses.

• No maintenance work when the machine is powered. That means not even for a single microsecond! Period! That is the rule to be followed at all times without exception.
• The hydraulic presses have been designed with safety interlocks. Do not disable them at any time, repeat any time and no exceptions

So you can see that a hydraulic press can be a boon or bane depending on how you use it.