Design and applications of a pneumatic accelerator for high speed punching

High speed forming is an important production method that requires specially designed HERF (high energy rate forming) machines. Most of the HERF machines are devices that consist of a system in which energy is stored and a differential piston mechanism is used to release the energy at high rate. In order to eliminate the usage of specially designed HERF machines and to obtain the high speed forming benefits, the accelerator which can be adapted easily onto conventional presses has been designed and manufactured in this study. The designed energy accelerator can be incorporated into mechanical press to convert the low speed operation into high-speed operation of a hammer. Expectations from this work are reduced distortion rates, increased surface quality and precise dimensions in metal forming operations. From the performance test, the accelerator is able to achieve high speed and energy which require for high speed blanking of thick sheet metals.