Hello, I am in charge of a project which involves me integrating a new hydraulic system to our Transfer Molding Machine, so it can be fully controlled by the PLC. Right now, I am stumped on the hydraulics. The machine has a clamping cylinder and a transfer cylinder. I am wanting to design a schematic that allows me to set and view the transfer pressure, transfer speed, and clamping pressure. My questions lie in the terms of what kind of valves, sensors, etc.. should I be using to achieve this? I am fairly new to hydraulics, so this one is giving me a run for my money. I have attached a picture of the machine and can get more pictures of the setup. Disregard the two machines, the focus is to get one setup this way for now and do the other after.

 

Things to consider when making a hydraulic package for this transfer press. First of all safety, should have lock out and emergency interlocks for motors. You should know how fast the press has to move and how fast the transfer cylinder has to move. You should know what accuracy you're looking for. If you're trying to make it faster than it was originally designed for you need to look at the reaction time of the system. It may be that you will need to move your light curtain out a bit in order to keep body parts from getting in there at higher speeds. You're going to need stroke devices in order to tell how fast you're moving. These will determine your type of inputs. What kind of response time do you need.? Will there be a mold safety/part stuck in press, press doesn't close requirement, what pressure does your hydraulic circuit run at. Do you know the breakaway pressure for opening the press? Do you need pressure / flow ramping or is it a bang bang multiple pressure relief circuit kind of press?
If you want to use the gearpump and a servo motor you can have adjustable variable speeds and ramping that can be fairly accurate circuit to design. You'll need to look at the cylinder ratings that you're using on this press to make sure you don't over pressure something and design the hydraulic system pressure relief for this.
Is there a Degas (breathe or bump) cycle required?
If you don't want to do all the flow engineering and pick the valves and components yourself some hydraulics houses will build a package for you. But you have to know how fast things are going and how you're going to use a sensor to pick up the cylinder speeds and pressures for your PLC. There are many ways to accomplish what you want, but you need to define your needs a little more.