A power hammer, also known as an air power hammer or a pneumatic hammer, is a type of mechanical forging hammer used by blacksmiths, bladesmiths, metalworkers, and manufacturers from the late 1800s through the modern day. The power hammer typically consists of a frame, anvil, and a reciprocating ram holding a hammer head. It is a direct descendant of the trip hammer but unlike the trip hammer the power hammer stores potential energy in an arrangement of mechanical linkages and springs or compressed air or steam and accelerates the ram on the downward stroke, providing more force than simply allowing the weight to fall. Power hammers are rated in the weight of the ram and range from between 25 pounds and 125 tons.
The earliest power hammers were powered by steam and were predominantly used in industrial settings. Steam hammers were made and used into the middle of the 20th century in the USA. At the end of the 19th century the mechanical power hammer became popular in smaller blacksmith and repair shops. The majority of these machines were powered by line shaft flat belt systems or later electric motors that rotated a crank on the machine that drove the ram. These machines were typically rated between 25 and 500 pounds of falling weight. Many may still be seen in use in artist-blacksmith shops today. In the middle of the 20th century power hammers driven by compressed air began to gain popularity and several manufacturers are currently producing these hammers today.
In the 1920’s, two pneumatic devices were invented that would permanently change the way metal and stone were hammered. The pneumatic rivet gun was originally developed to set hot rivets on girder bridges and high steel buildings. This tool was later scaled down for sheet metal, as the 1930’s saw the advent of monocoque aluminum aircraft, one of the first being the 1934 Hughes H1-Racer. The other new device, hitting at twice or three times the speed of the rivet gun, was the stone carver’s hammer – a great blessing for smooth and rapid dressing of granite and marble. In 1930 Mr. F.J. Hauschild adapted the original stone carver’s hammer into a portable handheld steel tube frame for the purpose of straightening auto bodies. For the next 25 years his “Ram’s Head Body and Fender Machine” became a huge help for body men all over the U.S. Copying Hauschild’s patented design, a pneumatic tool company in Chicago energetically marketed a number of “destined-to-be-classic” pneumatic planishing hammers, both handheld for auto body work, and also free standing ones, with a variety of throat depths for industry and manufacturing.[1]
By World War II, rivet guns were used widely in U.S. aircraft factories for both riveting aluminum sheets, and also for flow forming, the process of working aluminum sheet into and over wooden forms by the application of the pneumatic rivet gun. Years of industry following the war brought many new applications for the “Air Hammer.” Among these were sand rammers and tampers for sand casting metal, plating rack scalers, weld chippers, destruction guns for cleaning up concrete, needle scalers, pavement breakers, and metal chisels. Each of these tools has a different purpose despite nearly identical appearance in many cases, and for that reason each air hammer has a different amount of impact, rate of fire, and degree of controllability. [2]
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References
Further reading
- Freund, Douglas, Pounding Out The Profits, Mingus Mountain Machine Works, Jerome AZ, 1997 isbn 0-9657652-0-2
External links
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