Monthly Press Tips (August 2018) ~ Counterbalancing Cylinders Can Greatly Increase the Productive Life and Output of Your Press!

Counterbalancing Cylinders can  greatly increase the productive life and output of your press.  You can expect to:

• Hide all excessive vertical lift clearances within the drivetrain
• Reduce the drivetrain load on the motor and flywheel
• Improve safety of the machine
• Assists the slide adjusting mechansim

Below are Four Steps on how to adjust the counterbalance cylinder pressure

1. Check parallelism between the slide face and bolster. Adjust as required.
2. Rotate the slide through the stroke of the machine and stop slide assembly at the 90 degree position and stop the press.  If there is a tool in the press, set pressure at 60 PSI.  Without the tool, set pressure at 50 PSI.
3. Turn the press off and allow flywheel to stop.
4. This step will require (2) people, release the brake and allow the slide to drift. If the slide moves up, then decrease the air pressure and if the slide drops increase the air pressure until the slide holds at 90 degrees.  Once you have found this balance point, add an additional 3-5 PSI to slightly over counterbalance the slide.

You may ask the question:  How often should the counterbalance be adjusted?

MCM Answer: It should be checked and adjusted with each die change.

Always follow your safety guidelines during any maintenance work!

For further information contact Jeff Fredline, Meco Contract Manufacturing, 423-278-4244