Recycling baler (removing ram from plate)

[16121998]

Hey guys, basically we refurbish and rebuild pnumatic balers. The problem were having is the ram (metal bar) gets seized into the plate after long term use while they are out on rental and we have to remove his part when we need to powder coat and refurbish the machine, normally I will take the bolt out of the bottom of the plate that connects it to the ram and lift the plate off the floor using the forklift lifting up onto the diaphragm (thick rubber ring) that is attached to the top on the ram and then apply some wd-40 to where the ram connects to the plate and the use a sledge hammer to wack either side of the plate but this leaves damage in the plate which is normally too deep to grind out with an angle grinder so it looks bad when it goes back into a machine, however sometimes the sledgehammer doesn't work so we use two ten ton jacks either side pushing down on plate and up onto the forklift arms which normally works... however we found out the other day that it's not a very safe method when it broke the threats on the top of the ram and sent the diaphragm flying and my colleges face with almost 20 tons of force taking half of three teeth out! So my question is basically are there any safe ways that could remove the ram quickly and effectively because we're on a really tight timescale to get each machine looking brand new and getting sent out again. I will attach some photos one of the baler and one of the plate but they aren't very good photos so I appologise for that! Thanks, Jay.

 

[MikeHalloran]

It's hard to tell from one photo, but I'm thinking you need to get the seized ram/plate assembly into something that looks more like a common/traditional forcing press.

The simplest ones are often powered by a generic hydraulic jack. I suggest that you substitute a pneumatically operated hydraulic jack so that the jack can be operated remotely, with all personnel behind a sturdy partition/scattershield.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[16121998]

That sounds like something that would be a good idea in asking for, ill try and upload some more photos tomorrow after I finish work. The only thing about the hydraulic Jack is it sounds as if it would be quite expensive and as we can just use a sledgehammer not sure how keen my boss would be on the idea, what would your opinion be on dry ice as that's something that's been reccomended for other fairly similar threads on here! Thanks for the help, Jay

 

[berkshire]

By the time you have bought half a dozen loads of dry Ice you could have put that money into a good hydraulic jack.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.