Stamping press main gear failure - photos

[Frank S]

Not to mention untold potential millions of cycles; though a press that size (maybe 300 ton) is about 15-35 per minute, depending on part size, material feeding and auto or manually tripped. No clue, the dieset is out; wood cribbing holding up the ram. That alone would be a job for the millwrights.
This is called a straight side press, and tiny compared to what auto manufacturers use. Mounting such a dieset, and prepping the machine itself is time consuming, so they run figurative 24/7.
It's possible that it made a double hit (two pieces of material), but only if operator is a Darwin Gold Medalist, scoring 9.8 with all 5 judges. Punching parts isn't as demanding as forming, two sheets eat up all the clearance, the crank still wants to generate same stroke, and whamo!

Glad presses I've serviced were belt drive flywheels!

One thing I would have liked to see would be a photo of the gears at the time the housings were opened up, before they cleaned them.
Also judging by the noticeable wear of the shaft hole on the housing cover. It would be a safe bet the main shaft bearings are on the decline as well

[kess]

Obviously can been from a longer distance traffic route than the required at the press.
Surely the mold will be having damages as well.

[Toolmaker51]

Obviously can been from a longer distance traffic route than the required at the press.
Surely the mold will be having damages as well.

Possibly. If it was punching (slugs or blanks) damage might have been minimal as punches have some place to 'go'. If was forming or coining it would be more severe, depending on what caused fracture. You should see what happens when someone leaves a wrench in there. It makes several impressions; on the owner, supervisor, the whole shift, HR department, unemployment office, and toolmaker assigned to fix it......

The conventional term is 'dieset' comprised of punch holder, almost always the upper half and attached to ram. The lower is the die and mounts to bed platen. Finely ground posts in tight fitting bushings set the alignment during the build, storage, mounting, and that lee'ttle extra augmenting travel of the machine itself.

A 'mold' shares some features such as upper and lower halves. The 'punch' is called a core, the 'die' known as cavity. They also carry pins and bushings. In horizontal presses, aligning halves would be next to impossible otherwise. Few injection molding machines run vertically, suitable for only very small parts.