120T hydraulic press

[Wade BeattyParticipant @wadebeatty78296]

Ran across this press in the local classified ads. 120T press with 3 phase HPU.

At the moment i have no immediate use for it but my grandsons and I smashed some fun items over the weekend after I mounted a cast acrylic shield in front of it.

100 Euros.. can’t go wrong. I am a sucker for a good deal.

It was originally used to test concrete samples for compressive strength.

 

Wade

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Hope your pleixiglass shield is thick enough. 120 tons is a lot of force. Endless hours of fun no doubt. Instead of non-destructive testing, you are engaged in non-testing destruction.

[Hopper]

On Hopper Said:

Hope your pleixiglass shield is thick enough. 120 tons is a lot of force. …

How important the shield is depends on the material being crushed.   Dangerous if the material stores energy, like sealed container full of gas, much less for squeezing concrete, because concrete doesn’t store energy.  I’d always wear safety glasses though.

Same issue testing boilers.  The material being squeezed makes all the difference.

• Not dangerous when a boiler is filled with water and then the water is pressurised to test it.   Water being incompressible, no energy is stored, so nothing exciting happens if the boiler fails.    They just give way with a gentle click at the weakest point.
• Conversely, testing a boiler in the same way with compressed air is extremely dangerous.   Air compresses like a spring, storing rather a lot of energy as the pressure rises.   If the boiler fails under test, the energy stored in the air is liable to rip the whole thing asunder with a bang, and flying metal.
• Testing a boiler with live high-pressure steam is worst of all, because steam is full of heat:  far more energetic, although compressed air is moderately risky, at least it’s cold.

Lots of uses for a powerful hydraulic ram in a workshop.   Shame I have no room for even a small one!

Dave

Dave

 

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, years ago in my old maintenance job, I had to remove and bring back to our complex, a similar type of press, and a number of other pieces of lab equipment, from a lab in West Bromwich, which they sold. This one made test pieces. It was about 18″ square by about 30″ tall, and was enclosed with a door on one side, it weighed about 300 Kg, but there was nothing to grip onto to lift it, and no way of using any lifting gear. As it was on a concreate plinth, I was able to slide it onto a small hand pallet transfer truck, and manoeuvre it around work benches etc., to get it out of the building and it really was a bit of a challenge. While I was there with the Lab departmental head, he said that I could have anything else that was left (in the particular section we were in) that I wanted for myself, as our company didn’t want any of it, and nor did the new owners want any of it either, and it all would probably end up in a skip. So that’s where I got my Swiss Boy lab jack, and a few other odds and ends of small tools, including my No.3 Paragon scalpel handle with a small number of Swan Morton blades that fit it.

Regards Nick.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

….. Because concrete doesn’t store energy….. 

Dave

 

Oh yes it does, but a lot less than compressed gas. All materials deflect when a force is applied, so they all store energy. Wire ropes snapping have caused serious injury to bystanders as the stored energy is converted into (high) velocity.

[duncan webster 1]

On duncan webster 1 Said:

….. Because concrete doesn’t store energy…..

Dave

 

Oh yes it does, but a lot less than compressed gas. All materials deflect when a force is applied, so they all store energy. …

It’s a fair cop guv, especially as I also said water is incompressible, which isn’t true either.

In mitigation I simplified with no intent to mislead.  Any chance of a reduced sentence?

What I’m trying to say is that considering how a material behaves when a force is applied is important.   Concrete fails by crumbling more-or-less harmlessly whereas steel wire rope has a nasty habit of whip-lashing through bystanders!

Dave

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

As you are a Somerset man I’ve sent the case for sentencing to Judge Jeffreys

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

… ah, the judge notorious for his method for tensile-testing rope.

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