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Metalworking (rec.crafts.metalworking) Discuss various aspects of working with metal, such as machining, welding, metal joining, screwing, casting, hardening/tempering, blacksmithing/forging, spinning and hammer work, sheet metal work. |
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Air Pads
On the Bridgeport list on Yahoo someone suggested using an air pad to move machinery. Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew informaiton about this sort of thing? http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about. TIA Errol Groff Instructor, Machine Tool Department H.H. Ellis Technical High School 643 Upper Maple Street Danielson, CT 06239 New England Model Engineering Society www.neme-s.org |
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The only thing I know about this technique is that it is used by fire
services and rescue personel to rescue people from building collapses, etc. Does your school have an auto shop? At our high school we moved our 2400 pound bridgeport clone from the shipping crate outside to an indoor shop using 5 2 1/2 ton rolling hydraulic shop jacks borrowed from the autoshop next door. These are the kind of jacks used by mechanics to lift up cars without the big floor lift, and have steel rollers to allow them to move loads as well as lift. We simply slid the jacks under the pallet the machine sat on, jacked it up, removed the remnants of the pallet, and then muscled the machine into the room, pushing and repositioning the jacks to move around obstacles. Thus the need for 5 jacks. You need one for each corner and one to shift the weight onto in order to reposition the jacks. Hope this is useful. Let me know if you have any other questions. Eagle Strike Robotics Team, Los Altos High School |
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Out where I used to work, they use air pallets to move things, heavy
things. One of the possible problems is having a smooth level floor. At work they spent a fair bit to get a level floor. Nothing like having 60 tons wanting to go to the low spot. The other thing that I never have understood is they use fairly high pressure air which ends up being not very high pressure under the pallet. I think the reason is so the hoses are not any bigger than they are. If I were designing the system, I would look at using a ring compressor mounted on the pallet. Dan |
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On Thu, 02 Jun 2005 00:28:03 GMT, Errol Groff
wrote: On the Bridgeport list on Yahoo someone suggested using an air pad to move machinery. Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew informaiton about this sort of thing? http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about. TIA Errol Groff Instructor, Machine Tool Department H.H. Ellis Technical High School 643 Upper Maple Street Danielson, CT 06239 New England Model Engineering Society www.neme-s.org Rough and ready pads are simply made by drilling one or more holes in a 1/4" or thicker steel plate that is plumbed with air lines to the hole(s), then slid under the machine. Air is applied to the airlines and the plate slides on a very thing cushion of air. Just remember..inertia and kinetic energy still remain. Once you get it moving...its going to be hard to stop unless you move slow. Gunner "Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules. Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner |
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We used to use that technology at the factory to move machinery.
Looking at the specs, they use a lot of air. The smallest unit requires 12 SCFM per pad, so a system of four pads, typical for moving a machine, would use around 50 SCFM. A homebuilt unit might leak more and need more air, so you might need a large compressor. Richard Errol Groff wrote: On the Bridgeport list on Yahoo someone suggested using an air pad to move machinery. Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew informaiton about this sort of thing? http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about. TIA Errol Groff Instructor, Machine Tool Department H.H. Ellis Technical High School 643 Upper Maple Street Danielson, CT 06239 New England Model Engineering Society www.neme-s.org |
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Errol Groff wrote in
: Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew informaiton about this sort of thing? http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about. Errol, Do not know of any website off-hand, but we use these almost daily at work to move machinery. (Yes, we move equipment that often.....*sigh*) You need a fairly smooth, level floor. Use aluminum flashing taped down over expansion joints in the floors. These use the same principle as a hovercraft. Each pad is independetly adjustable for height/flotation with the regulators on the control unit. We routinely move 7000kg (15,000lb+) machines with only 3 people, its that easy to move around once it's floating. I would most definately suggest purchasing the equipment to do this, it is specially designed. Home brew may be very, very unsafe. Hate to see a home brew bladder blow out on a corner while you are floating a machine. Probably get someone really hurt. -- Anthony You can't 'idiot proof' anything....every time you try, they just make better idiots. Remove sp to reply via email http://www.machines-cnc.net:81/ |
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In article ,
Errol Groff wrote: On the Bridgeport list on Yahoo someone suggested using an air pad to move machinery. Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew informaiton about this sort of thing? http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about. Nope, but you could try a cheapish experiment. Piece of plywood, (or two) route a bunch of grooves across the bottom, drill a hole where convenient, lacquer the **** out of it, and apply air. If it doesn't work, add some legs and call it a table. -- B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net http://web2.airmail.net/thegoat4/ |
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"Errol Groff" wrote in message ... On the Bridgeport list on Yahoo someone suggested using an air pad to move machinery. Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew informaiton about this sort of thing? http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about. TIA Errol Groff Instructor, Machine Tool Department H.H. Ellis Technical High School 643 Upper Maple Street Danielson, CT 06239 New England Model Engineering Society www.neme-s.org Do a web lookup on Hovercraft - plenty of advice on design, construction, skirt material and weight to air volume/pressure. Years ago in the UK Pickfords Heavy Haulage had the brilliant idea to use a hover skirt on its heavy low loader. Well it was brilliant until the first sewer manhole cover and a lot or irate locals sitting on their high pressure toilets. The most expensive single use hover skirt ever made. |
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Years ago in the UK Pickfords Heavy Haulage had the brilliant idea to use a hover skirt on its heavy low loader. Well it was brilliant until the first sewer manhole cover and a lot or irate locals sitting on their high pressure toilets. The most expensive single use hover skirt ever made. LOL, now that's funny. Karl |
#10
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Try http://www.aerogo.com/
This is not homebrew stuff, but it will give you an idea what you can do with air pad movers. "Errol Groff" wrote in message ... On the Bridgeport list on Yahoo someone suggested using an air pad to move machinery. Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew informaiton about this sort of thing? http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about. TIA Errol Groff Instructor, Machine Tool Department H.H. Ellis Technical High School 643 Upper Maple Street Danielson, CT 06239 New England Model Engineering Society www.neme-s.org |
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Rough and ready pads are simply made by drilling one or more holes in a 1/4" or thicker steel plate that is plumbed with air lines to the hole(s), then slid under the machine. Air is applied to the airlines and the plate slides on a very thing cushion of air. Just remember..inertia and kinetic energy still remain. Once you get it moving...its going to be hard to stop unless you move slow. Gunner Yes, It works, but rough and ready is a pretty good description. I had to move a liquid CO2 storage tank in the brewery in Fiji years ago. We made up some pads out of mild steel plate and welded a 1/4" rod around the outside of them to form a plenum chamber. They were about 2 feet in diameter. We put 3/4 air lines on each one of them ( we used 4 plates) we jacked up the tank and slid them under the base. The concrete floor was a bit rough but level. It made a hell of a noise (used the most of the output from the plant air compressor to supply it) but it allowed us to push it by hand the 10 feet that we had to move it. Tom |
#12
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Errol
I've been involved with moving equipment with aerogo pads for quite a few years in different plants. Most of my work is on tiled floors and these things are great. However if the floor is not well glued you can pop a lot of tiles loose. I actually observed a tile 8-10 feet away from the pad pop up. I've also witnessed a whole concrete pad pop up. We parked a machine over a hole drilled in the concrete and enough air got under the floor to tilt up a 4x6' section and the dust storm horrendous till the air got shut down. I've got other stories but believe me that these things can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Their basic construction is imagine a tire sidewall sliced off the tire and affixed to a very stiff plate. Now the actual membrane is a bit more flexible but similar in construction with the reinforced center ring/opening. The air is fed into the center of the bladder. The bladder starts off sealed to the floor and then lifts till an equilibrium is reached. If you have a 24" pad you have roughly 450 square inches of area for the air to work on so at 20 psi you have ~9000 lbs of lift. As the air starts to leak from the center hole out the whole thing starts to become frictionless against the floor. However if the floor is rough or cracked then you get a massive air leak and the pad "blows out" . Sharp things on the floor will cut or tear the bladder and your shot. The newer pads have a scrim over the bottom that helps keep the bladder from rolling and blowing out. They don't look to hard to make a crude set but if you do I would suggest that you make a pressure regulator manifold to go along with them because you need the control. If the system goes into oscillation then the lift can start to doing some bouncing, just like a car with no shocks. lg no neat sig line "Aaron" wrote in message news:dAFne.796$R21.446@lakeread06... Try http://www.aerogo.com/ This is not homebrew stuff, but it will give you an idea what you can do with air pad movers. "Errol Groff" wrote in message ... On the Bridgeport list on Yahoo someone suggested using an air pad to move machinery. Does anyone know of a web site that might have some "how to" homebrew informaiton about this sort of thing? http://www.hovair.com/ This is the sort of thing I am talking about. TIA Errol Groff Instructor, Machine Tool Department H.H. Ellis Technical High School 643 Upper Maple Street Danielson, CT 06239 New England Model Engineering Society www.neme-s.org |
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