Press fixture design

[BlaineW]

Looking for opinions here.

Small Die set press to stake two parts together, frame is about 3" tall. Would it be preferable to have the nest on a slide that would be top loaded and then pushed into position in press, or front loaded directly into position on the press. Having debate with toolmaker.

Thanks

 

[ornerynorsk]

Operator safety and fatigue should be the primary considerations. Keeping the hands out of the tool while making the holding fixture or nest as accessible as possible to load parts sounds like a good idea. Ball bearing slides (Thompson slides or THK) used in conjunction with localized hard pads to bear the brunt of the press force sounds realistic.

Just a couple of thoughts, a picture would help with additional ideas.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.