forging presses.. big ones.. a late night read

[wayne petty]

http://boingboing.net/2012/02/13/machines.html


a link from the above article...

http://www.archive.org/stream/plantproductofme00mest#page/n135/mode/2up


i thought that all of you might really enjoy these massive machines...

this is not a quick read.... enjoy

wayne...  finder of the obscure

[oj]

Great article, thanks for posting.

[jaybee]

Those are some big machines...I like big machines!

[chimp koose]

showed this to some of my night class students. They were in awe of the sheer size of the equipment.

[wayne petty]

this brings back something my cousin who lived in burbank right across from the skunk works told me a few years back...   that lockheed had a massive press for creating wing spars and frame members... must have been 80 feet long...  absolutely a monster of a press...  but seems that nobody wanted it when they closed the skunk works... it sat for several years.. then was cut up for scrap...

i would almost bet .. that was part of the press program the government had during the 50s...  and that the Titanium aircraft like the YF-12A and the SR-71s were created on..  as they are completely made of titanium..

that might actually have been the reason for the heavy press program...

build a bunch of them..   send the parts out..  loose one set off parts to burbank with the Oops!!  did we build 10 or 11.. perhaps it was buy 10.. get an 11th for free..


an in law worked there sanding and  polishing the edges of the titanium parts for the YF12s and the SR 71s when he got drafted...  he could not admit to the draft board what he was doing as it was a classified work area..   the edges Have to be almost a mirror finish to prevent stress fractures from thermal cycling..

the U2 spy planes predate the yfs and the sr71s.   i have not been able to get any kind of decent conversation time with my cousins father in law. as his desk was next to kelly's in the skunk works..   i did read in an article he wrote that the engines in the SR71s should be able to handle 3,400MPH.. but the airframe cannot dissipate enough heat at that much speed...  the windshield has to be installed in high temp silicone..  as the glass can get close to 900F at speed.



more images of the mesta machine company products and projects can be found at this link...

http://digital.library.pitt.edu/images/pittsburgh/mesta.html


there are 164 additional images in case you miss the link in the upper left.