3 ms·

9,000 tons is a lot of force... but we've done much bigger presses[1] I fail to see how the prefix "Giga" - 10^9 applies. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al

9,000 tons is a lot of force... but we've done much bigger presses[1] I fail to see how the prefix "Giga" - 10^9 applies. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoa_50,000_ton_forging_press https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoa_50,000_ton_forging_press

bryanlarsen 4y ago
9,000 tonnes is 9 Gigagrams.
- idontwantthis 4y ago
  Everything is giga-something.
  - playingalong 4y ago
    Right. But to their defense, gram is the unit without prefix.
- mikewarot 4y ago
  so, 9 Kilotons they should call it the KiloPress
pif 4y ago
1000 tons = 10^9 grams
londons_explore 4y ago
I don't think those presses would be suitable for car manufacturing because they weren't fast... Ie. rather than a cycle time of ~50 seconds, they had a cycle time of many hours.
- mikewarot 4y ago
  What makes you think they had such a slow cycle time? I can't find any hint of that, there are videos showing cycle times with a part only taking a minute or so.
  - simondotau 4y ago
    A lot of the cycle time involves thermal management of the casting and the press.
blamazon 4y ago
The encompassing "heavy press program" is an interesting bit of history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Press_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Press_Program Several of these presses have been designated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as historic landmarks and I suspect the HN audience may be interested in the other landmarks: https://www.asme.org/about-asme/engineering-history/landmarks https://www.asme.org/about-asme/engineering-history/landmark... I've been trying to visit as many of these in person as I can and it's been a very satisfying hobby. Some portion of them are on private land or don't have standard visitor hours, but my tip is group tours are easiest to arrange for the most reticent property owners, and there's almost always an ASME chapter at a nearby university looking for industry mentor connections. Plus going on a field trip with students is a special joy :)

bryanlarsen 4y ago

9,000 tonnes is 9 Gigagrams.

idontwantthis 4y ago
Everything is giga-something.
- playingalong 4y ago
  Right. But to their defense, gram is the unit without prefix.
mikewarot 4y ago
so, 9 Kilotons they should call it the KiloPress

pif 4y ago

1000 tons = 10^9 grams

londons_explore 4y ago

I don't think those presses would be suitable for car manufacturing because they weren't fast... Ie. rather than a cycle time of ~50 seconds, they had a cycle time of many hours.

mikewarot 4y ago
What makes you think they had such a slow cycle time? I can't find any hint of that, there are videos showing cycle times with a part only taking a minute or so.
- simondotau 4y ago
  A lot of the cycle time involves thermal management of the casting and the press.

blamazon 4y ago

The encompassing "heavy press program" is an interesting bit of history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Press_Program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Press_Program Several of these presses have been designated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as historic landmarks and I suspect the HN audience may be interested in the other landmarks: https://www.asme.org/about-asme/engineering-history/landmarks https://www.asme.org/about-asme/engineering-history/landmark... I've been trying to visit as many of these in person as I can and it's been a very satisfying hobby. Some portion of them are on private land or don't have standard visitor hours, but my tip is group tours are easiest to arrange for the most reticent property owners, and there's almost always an ASME chapter at a nearby university looking for industry mentor connections. Plus going on a field trip with students is a special joy :)