Girard Associates, Inc. & Girard Engineering, Inc. - Cleveland, Ohio - Forging and Industrial Controls / Enclosures

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HYDROBLOCK quick-change system

Hydraulic Clamping System

Hydraulic clamping system centers and clamps punch and die blocks. Clamping elements with T-shaped tie rods engage the T-slots of the blocks and clamp them hydraulically, in the machine's forming axis. Another clamping element seats the die block sideways in the frame.

Centering elements align the blocks horizontally and vertically at the same time.

Punches

The punches are automatically connected and clamped to the adjusting wedges. To allow axial adjustment of the punches with the wedges, the punch packs are automatically connected to the slide with a bayonet lock and then clamped hydraulically to the adjusting wedges by built-in pistons.

For adjustment, these clamps are released and then re-clamped via pushbutton.

The punch and die blocks are automatically centered and clamped.

Punch and Die Blocks: Diagrams

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Two clamping circuits

The hydraulic clamping system works with two independent circuits. If one ever should fail it's always backed up by the second.

The whole system is fail-safe protected in any case, because the machine is stopped automatically whenever the hydraulic pressure drops.

The advantage of these blocks:

The tooling can be assembled in the blocks while the machine is running another job. Saves time. The blocks can be exchanged as complete units, with no centering or fine-tuning in the machine required.

The tools are clamped in the blocks with no play at all. So there is no axial play under load, which means less wear and longer life.

In addition, the die block's pressure plate affords wider distribution of the forming loads, so the compressive load per unit area is reduced.

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