Elmes engineering platen press

[EdT]

In my ongoing quest to find large iron lumps made by defunct companies that no one ever heard of I recently acquired this large and heavy press from a university auction. Made by ELMES engineering works in Chicago and retrofitted "recently" (1970's I believe) with an unusual STANSTED FLUID POWER (English company that still exists) 12000 PSI hydraulic pump. For scale, the platen plates are 18" square. It's a bit bigger and heavier than I expected it to be and getting it onto the rolling base was a challenge. Next opportunity is to get the pump working. I've been in contact with the pump company in England and I think I know enough about it to see if will work open circuit at first. Then we'll see if it will run the press. If not, it'll probably get replaced with a more conventional two stage pump and drive. Any one know anything about either item?

 

[EdT]

Looks like I'm about to become the worlds leading expert on this stuff. Spent some time today figuring out the wiring on the pump. There are three switches, two relays, a solenoid valve, a starter and an electro mechanical brake on the motor/pump so it's a bit busier than most Sometime next week I'll hook it up and let the smoke out. Then I can get busy finding a somewhat simpler pump that will probably do just fine. The rod coming out of the cylinder is at least 5.5" in diameter. It's unclear whether that's the piston diameter or not. Piston could be a little bigger, but not much. That would make the cylinder walls around 3" thick. Plenty of meat for a rebore.Probably like a common hydraulic jack where the plunger is the same diameter all the way down. It will have to be a mystery since I am not planning to take it apart unless absolutely required.

 

[404]

Excellent find! I read your post to my child bride and she said it sounded like me.

 

[EdT]

Well, in my ongoing education on old stuff, I wired the mystery pump up to a VFD to get three pahse and turned it on. The contactor on the motor immediately clicked "ON" when the start button was pushed and just as quickly clicked "OFF" with the VFD showing an overload. So I messed around a bit more and ended up bypassing the contactor altogether and the motor and pump actually ran!! I messed around with the 19th century controls for a while, but unfortunately, one of the three low pressure return lines on the pump failed generating a brief spray of hydraulic oil and thwarting my efforts for the day.
I decided to review the specs on the pump to see if would actually be a good choice for my needs. Turns out it will generate 12,000 PSI, but only deliver 35 cubic inches of fluid a minute. The cylinder has around 180 cubic inch displacement at full stroke so a full excursion would take six minutes or so. That could get tedious. So, the decision for the moment is to get a simpler, newer, less exotic pump and lose the old one. Hate to do it, but it would not be satisfactory even if it worked properly and I'm not sure how much time and effort that would take. The manufacturer said that it would be costing $150 an hour for them to help me (via e-mail). For three hours of their time I can probably get a complete system or close to it. So, that's the direction of the moment. Subject to change (but probably not).