Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering (OJME)1(1) (2016) 19-24

Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering (OJME)

DOI : http://doi.org/10.26480/ojme.01.2016.19.24

ISSN: 2329-8243 (Print)

ISSN: 2329-8235 (Online)

CODEN : OJCEB4

OPTIMAL DESIGN OF HYDRAULIC SYSTEM FOR AN INDUSTRIAL PRESS

MACHINE FOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT AND NOISE REDUCTION
Jiafeng Yao1, Baochun Lu2, Chris Zhang3, Michio Sadatomi4
1Kumamoto University, Japan,
2Nanjing University of Science & Technology, China,
3University of Saskatchewan, Canada,
4Kumamoto University, Japan, s

*Corresponding jiaf.yao@gmail.com, lucnust@sina.com, chris.zhang@usask.ca, adatomi@mech.kumamoto-u.ac.jp

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ARTICLE DETAILS ABSTRACT

In this paper, we present an optimal design of the hydraulic system for a class of industrial press machines. Such
Article History: machines are expected to produce a large pressure on a work-piece and they are driven by a hydraulic system.
Excessive vibration in the period where the press is changed from pressure holding to pressure relief is a
Received 7 January 2016
Accepted 10 February 2016
common bottleneck problem with such machines. The vibration is closely related to the hydraulic system that
Available online 15 February 2016 controls a press head’s movement and is subsequently responsible for the property of work-pieces. In the
present study, we proposed a novel design of the hydraulic circuit for pressure relief and applied it to a brick
press machine and evaluated through simulation by AMESim software, which showed that the design is
effective. Finally, the simulation results were validated in practical operation, which showed that, the violent
vibration was decreased significantly and the noise level of the new machine is decreased from 80 decibel to 58
decibel.

KEYWORDS

Optimal Design, Hydraulic System, Pressure relief, Simulation, AMESim

1. INTRODUCTION
A hydraulic press is a mechanical machine used for lifting or compressing
large items. The force is generated through the use of hydraulics to
increase the power of a standard mechanical level. This type of machine is
typically found in a manufacturing environment. Invented in 1795 by
Joseph Bramah, the hydraulic press is also known as the Bramah press. He
used his knowledge of fluid mechanics and motion to develop this device.
This invention significantly increased the compression power available,
expanding the product groups and options available to other inventors.
By applying hydraulics to a press, an entire class of machines was
invented. There is a wide range of different hydraulic press machines,
ranging from small table top units for hobbyists to huge machines used to
create metal parts. The primary concept used to provide power to the
hydraulic press is that the level of pressure in a closed system is constant.
This type of press has pistons with a fluid inside that is displaced by the
pistons' inward movement. The fluid forces its way back into the space by
moving the piston outward. The additional power is created through the
movement of the fluid, which is confined to the system.
with these two methods, it is found that they may not be satisfactory. For
instance, a particular brick press machine has a noise level up to 80
decibels [3]. Fig. 1 shows its pressure profile during the pressure
switching period.
As it is shown in Fig. 1, there are four periods during the working process.
There is a sharp drop during the period d-e (the 6th second), and this
means that when the press head moves back, the pressure in the chamber
drops abruptly, which is a source of impact vibration.
The objective of this paper is to present a novel redesign of the hydraulic
control system to reduce the vibration significantly. Since the pressure
change of the hydraulic system is difficult to measure, we developed a
simulation method by AMESim software to find out the source of
hydraulic impact and validate the pressure relief effect of the new
method. The evaluation criterion of the simulation results are the level of
noise (actually, noise is come from the violent vibration of the hydraulic
impact). To illustrate and validate the proposed design, we take a
particular type of brick press machine as an example.

In this paper, we present an optimal design of the hydraulic system for a

class of industrial press machines. Such machines are expected to produce
a large pressure on a work-piece and they are driven by a hydraulic
system. Excessive vibration in the period where press is changed from
pressure holding to pressure relief is a common bottleneck problem. It is
noted that this period will be called ‘pressure switching” period in this
paper hereafter. The vibrations are closely related to the hydraulic system
for control of a press head’s movement as well as the property of work-
pieces.

One of the existing solution principles is to control the movement of the

press head to produce a proper pressure profile. For instance, two
methods based on this principle are available in [1,2]. However, from our
experience in designing and operating some press machine in practice
Cite the article: Jiafeng Yao, Baochun Lu, Chris Zhang, Michio Sadatomi (2016). Optimal Design of Hydraulic System for an Industrial Press Machine for
Performance Improvement and Noise Reduction. Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 1(1) : 19-24.
 Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering (OJME)1(1) (2016) 19-24 20

Figure 1: The pressure profile in the pressure switching period (a-b:

press head down period; b-c: pressing period; c-d: pressing holding
period; d-e: pressing relief period; Note: 1 MP = 10 Bar.

This paper is organized as follows. Firstly, the proposed redesign in the

context of press machine is described, followed by modeling and
simulation of both the new design and old design. After that, results are
presented and discussed. Finally, there is a discussion of conclusion,
limitation and future work.

2. OPTIMAL DESIGN OF THE HYDRAULIC CIRCUIT SYSTEM FOR

PRESS MACHINE

2.1 The generic operation of press machine

A working process of a manufacturing system such as brick product or

powder metallurgy is described as follows (Fig. 2): (1) press head is in
contact with the work-piece (Fig. 2a), (2) press head is further down to
deform the work-piece (Fig. 2b), (3) press head holds up with the work-
piece (Fig. 2c), (4) press head is slightly up (Fig. 2d), and (5) press head is
up (Fig. 2e). The performance of a press machine, in particular vibration
and impact behavior is closely related to the pressure profile (Fig. 1) and
the property of the work-piece.

Figure 4: Pressure relief method with a throttle valve.

The second principle (Principle 2) is to release the fluid by a pressure

valve group, and Fig. 5 shows a conceptual design which follows the
second principle. The pressure valve group can relieve the pressure
gradually because when the pressure is high, the oil can flow through the
two valves in succession. The main problem is, pressure relief from the
upper chamber is not smooth, i.e., the pressure of the upper chamber
decreases sharply and also brings about a little impact. In this paper, we
proposed a new principle (Principle 3), which combined Principle 1 and
2 due to their complementary behavior, as shown in Fig. 6. The
combination of the two was such that the second principle provides a
main regulation of fluid while the first principle provides a varying
regulation. In particular, a throttle valve and a check valve were added in
the design. The throttle valve was used to adjust the flow rate according
to different working conditions and the check valve was to prevent the
backlash of the oil.
Figure 2: Generic operation of press head.

The generic structure of a machine system is shown in Fig. 3. When Pu <

Pl, press head is up; otherwise press head is down. A control system is
associated with the fluids in the upper chamber and the lower chamber.
The fluids are represented by their flow rates (vu, vl), respectively. For
the press machine, hydraulic systems are commonly employed to
implement the control system, because they can generate high power
with a high degree of compliance when the head interacts with the work-
piece.

Figure 5: Pressure relief method with a pressure valve group.

Figure 3: Generic structure of press.

2.2 Proposed design for pressure relief of hydraulic system

Two principles are widely used in the hydraulic control system for
pressure relief. The first principle (Principle 1) is to release fluid from the
upper chamber gradually and continuously using a throttle valve, and Fig.
4 shows a conceptual design which follows the first principle. In the
hydraulic system, during the press action, high pressure is generated in
the hydraulic cylinder. After that, the oil could run through the throttle
valve to relieve the impact during the pressure change. This method is
easy to control but the potential disadvantage is that pressure relief from
the upper chamber may be too slow such that the pressure in the lower
chamber may be accumulated to a level larger than the pressure in the
upper chamber, leading to the head going up quickly and causing Figure 6: Proposed principle for pressure relief (P: Oil
vibration [4]. Entrance Port; T: Outlet Port; C: Controlling Port).

Cite the article: Jiafeng Yao, Baochun Lu, Chris Zhang, Michio Sadatomi (2016). Optimal Design of Hydraulic System for an Industrial Press Machine for
Performance Improvement and Noise Reduction. Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 1(1) : 19-24.
 Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering (OJME)1(1) (2016) 19-24
A conceptual design for the proposed principle is shown in Fig. 7. A
remote control port of relief valve (valve 2) is connected with P2 (P2 has
a low pressure, as it is connected to a relieving valve), through a throttle
valve (valve 3) and a check valve (valve 4). The opening velocity of relief
valve (valve 2) can thus be adjusted by regulating the port of valve 3. It is
also noted that the relieving velocity of the cavity can be adjusted
correspondingly. The pre-setting pressure of valve 2 should be greater
than the working pressure; in this way, valve 2 can also serve as a safety
valve. This pressure-relieving loop is particularly designed for the dual-
pump and double-circuit hydraulic system which suits a large flow-rate
brick press machine.
Figure 7: Conceptual design of the proposed principle.
3. MODELING DESIGNS BASED ON PRINCIPLE 1 AND PRINCIPLE 3
3.1 Case study by a Particular Brick Press Machine
A particular brick press machine which was supplied by a company in
China is taken for case study. This machine has a four-column cylinder
structure with two opposite pressing directions (Fig. 8). The structure of
the two pressing systems is the same, so we only consider the upper
pressing system. The machine has a dual-pump and double-circuit
hydraulic system that controls the press head.
Figure 8: A particular brick press machine was supplied by a company in
China with a four-column cylinder structure and two opposite pressing
directions.
The hydraulic control system for the press machine is shown in Fig. 9.
Note that the machine of Fig. 8 is based on Principle 1 (for brevity, in the
following, this machine is called old machine). In the old machine, there
are two charging valves in the upper and lower cylinders, respectively.
Cite the article: Jiafeng Yao, Baochun Lu, Chris Zhang, Michio Sadatomi (2016). Optimal Design of Hydraulic System for an Industrial Press Machine for
Performance Improvement and Noise Reduction. Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 1(1) : 19-24.
21
Figure 9: Hydraulic control system of the old machine based on Principle
1. (1: upper cylinder; 2, 7: charging valves; 6, 8-11: solenoid directional
valve 4: lower cylinder; 5: throttle valves; 12,13: overflow valves; 14:
check valve; 15: pressure gauge; 16: gear pump; 17, 18 : motor; 19: piston
pump. Y means solenoid valves).
At initial time, solenoid directional valves 12 and 13 are in the state of
“normally open”, so two pumps 16 and 19 start up with no load. A working
circle of the machine is shown in Fig. 10.
Figure 10: One operation cycle of solenoid valves.
In Fig. 10, there are seven actions of the press machine, and each action is
controlled by the solenoid valves. One working circle is described as
follows: When the upper cylinder moves downward, charging valve 2 is
open to fill oil into the upper cylinder to drive the upper cylinder move
more rapidly. Likewise, charging valve 7 is open when the lower cylinder
goes upward. When the two cylinders reach the pre-set position,
directional valve 6 places on right, the two cylinders are connected, and
the charging valves are closed. The system can get a higher pressure, and
then the pressing process starts. After pressing, the upper cylinder goes
upward by hydraulic force, and the lower cylinder moves back by gravity
of itself. Since the pressure change in the hydraulic system is difficult to
test, we will simulate this working process of hydraulic system by AMESim
software. AMESim stands for Advanced Modeling and Simulation
Environment for Systems Engineering, it offers a complete 1D simulation
suite to model and analyze multi-domain, intelligent systems and to
predict their multi-disciplinary performance. The components of the
model are described by analytical models representing the hydraulic,
pneumatic, electric or mechanical behavior of the system [5].
3.2 Modeling for the old machine based on Principle 1
The goal of modeling is to develop a model to calculate the pressure profile
in the pressure switching period. In the modeling, we neglected the noise
factors as well as the influence of the dynamic characteristics of pipeline
and fluid elastic modulus. Furthermore, we employed a modeling tool
called AMESim. Set up the simulation model of the whole system shown in
Fig. 11 based on the hydraulic system working principle 1 [6-8]. In this
model, the lower cylinder is simplified as one cavity, and the up cavity of
the cylinder is connected to the tank, since the lower cylinder goes back by
gravity of itself. Considering the purpose of this simulation is to find out
the source of violent vibrations and popping sounds, the simplification for
the lower cylinder cannot affect the results.
 Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering (OJME)1(1) (2016) 19-24 22

Figure 11: AMESim model of the hydraulic control system based on Figure 13: The AMESim model with relieving loop
Principle 1. (BAP12: Cylinder; MAS005: Mass Block; FORC: Press Force;
UD00: Signal Source; CV005: Fluid Control One-Way Valve; TK10: Oil The relieving loop can be simplified as a pilot relief valve and a
Tank; FP04: Hydraulic Oil Source; HSV34_01: Solenoid Directional Valve; signal source. The improved part is labeled with a red arrow in Fig. 13 [9,
OR003: One-Way Throttle Valve; RV00: Relif Valve; PV022: Swith Valve; 10].
CV000: Check Valve; PM000: Motor; PU001:Hydraulic Pump).
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.3 Modeling for the new machine based on Pricnciple 3
4.1 Results of simulation
The improved hydraulic system based Principle 3 is given in Fig.12, (for
Main parameters of the model in a working process for the old machine
brevity, in the following, this machine is called new machine) the
are as follows: Action cycle: 9 s；
optimized part is marked with a red arrow.
Piston travel: 0.6 m；
Hydraulic pressure：13 MP.

One working circle of the stroke of the upper cylinder is as Table 1:

Table 1: One working circle of stroke in upper cylinder

No load Down Apply Hold Back

Time [s] 1 2 2 1 3
Distance [m] 0 0.3 0.1 0 0.5

We set the relieving time as 1 second, and the pressure was reduced from
13 MP to 3 MP. The simulation curves of the old machine are obtained by
AMESim software. For the upper cylinder, here gives the curves of its
displacement, hydraulic pressure and acceleration in Fig. 14 - 16.

Figure 12: Diagram of the optimized hydraulic system. Figure 14: Displacement versus time of upper cylinder of the old machine.

Compared with the old machine, one more relieving action was added in
the new machine. The unloading relief valve only acts after keeping
pressure and before the cylinder drawing back. Exactly, it acts on 6th
second in this working process. That means the relieving loop unloads
the high pressure gradually before the fluid direction changes. Based on
the hydraulic system diagram, a model was established by AMESim. The
model with relieving loop is shown in Fig. 13.

Figure 15: Pressure versus time in upper cylinder of the old machine.

Cite the article: Jiafeng Yao, Baochun Lu, Chris Zhang, Michio Sadatomi (2016). Optimal Design of Hydraulic System for an Industrial Press Machine for
Performance Improvement and Noise Reduction. Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 1(1) : 19-24.
 Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering (OJME)1(1) (2016) 19-24 23

Also we find that, on the 6th second, the pressure in the lower cylinder
drops down sharply and the acceleration is up to 110 m/s2. That means
an analogous incident is emerged in the lower cylinder, so it is not
necessary to analyze the problem more. Meanwhile, the simulation results
of the upper cylinder for the new machine were obtained. For the
consideration of impact, we pay attention to the pressure change and
acceleration of the upper cylinder. So Fig. 20 and 21 describe the pressure
change in the cylinder and acceleration of the cylinder.

Figure 16: Acceleration versus time of upper cylinder of the old

machine.

Figure 14 - 16 described the working process of upper cylinder for the old
machine. The abscissa represents time. Fig. 14 shows the displacement of
the upper cylinder. As for Fig. 15, there is a sharp pressure drop on the
6th second, it means that, when the upper cylinder moves back after
keeping pressure for 2 seconds (it is on the 6 seconds in the picture), the
pressure drops abruptly. From Fig. 16, we can see that the acceleration at
that time is high. Due to the compressibility of the hydraulic oil and the
elasticity of the mechanical part, a large amount of energy is stored in the
hydraulic cylinder. As a result, the machine would produce violent Figure 20: Pressure in upper cylinder after optimization.
vibrations and emit a popping sound when the directional valves acts.
This phenomenon does a serious destruction to the brick press [11,12]. Compared with the old machine, it can be concluded that there is a sloping
Subsequently, the simulation curves for the lower cylinder of the old decrease of the pressure in the upper cylinder from the 6th second to the
machine are shown in Figure 17 - 19. 7th second, which means that the pressure does not drop immediately and
impact is reducing. In Fig.16, we can see that the acceleration is reduced
from 500 m/s2 to 35 m/s2, it also means that the vibration and impact are
decreased greatly.

Figure 17: Displacement of lower cylinder.

Figure 21: Acceleration of upper cylinder after optimization.

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Figure 19 : Acceleration of lower cylinder.

Figure 21: Acceleration of upper cylinder after optimization.

Cite the article: Jiafeng Yao, Baochun Lu, Chris Zhang, Michio Sadatomi (2016). Optimal Design of Hydraulic System for an Industrial Press Machine for
Performance Improvement and Noise Reduction. Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 1(1) : 19-24.
 Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering (OJME)1(1) (2016) 19-24 24

From the simulation, we found that, the hydraulic system had a large impact
in the pipes when the valve changed directions mainly because the system
is lack of a relief system. After analyzing two principles of pressure relief,
we designed a new pressure relief method by combing the two previous
methods, and then simulated it again. The results showed that the new
method is quite useful.
verification of solenoid valve characteristics for semiactive dampers,
International Journal of Vehicle Design, 47, 118-132.
[8] Henderson, R. 2006. Design, simulation, and testing of a novel hydraulic
power take-off system for the Pelamis wave energy converter, Renewable
Energy, 31, 271-283.

After that, we applied the new method to the prototype. Noise test showed
that, the noise level of the new machine is decreased from 80 decibel to 58
decibel. Impact in the hydraulic system was decreased significantly, and the
working life of the new machine was prolonged greatly. Meanwhile, the
products made of the machine were stronger and smoother than before
(Fig. 23).
[9] Milad, M.A., Sinba, S.N. 2000. Stress-strain characteristics of brick
masonry under cyclic biaxial compression, Journal of Structural
Engineering, 126, 1004-1007.
[10] Marquis-Favre, W., Bideaux, E., Scavarda, E. 2005. A planar mechanical
library in the AMESim simulation software, Part 2: Library composition and
illustrative example. Simulation Modeling Practice and Theory, 14, 95-111.

[11] Reineh, M., Pelosi, M. 2013. Physical Modeling and Simulation Analysis
of an Advanced Automotive Racing Shock Absorber using the 1D Simulation
Tool AMESim, SAE International Journal of Passenger Cars- Mechanical
Systems, 6, 7-17.

[12] Fu, L.J., Wei, J.H., Qiu, M.X. 2008. Dynamic characteristics of large flow
rating electro-hydraulic proportional cartridge valve, Chinese Journal of
Mechanical Engineering, 21, 57-62.

Figure 23: Products made by the press machine.

5. CONCLUSIONS

This paper discussed the problem of vibration presented in common

pressing machinery. One of the factors related to the vibration is the
hydraulic control system. A new hydraulic circuit system was proposed. By
means of a reliable modeling and simulation tool called AMESim, it can be
shown that the design based on the proposed principle worked quite well in
comparison with the design based on the old principle. A particular type of
brick press machine was used to illustrate this research and used to verify
effectiveness of the proposed principle. In particular, the noise level of the
old machine is about 80 decibel. The new machine based on the proposed
principle allows the noise level to be reduced to 58 decibel.
One limitation of the work may be the neglect of the type of materials that
are pressed. The current type of material is coal fly ash, which is quite
compliance or less stiffness. For other types of materials, due to different
compliances, the vibration suppressing behavior of the proposed control
system needs to be examined, which is an ongoing future work.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to express their sincerely appreciation to Mr. Gang
Li, student from Nanjing University of Science & Technology, and Mr.
Xianchun Tian, Mr. Huaitong Jiang, Mr. Feng Yu, engineers from Jiangsu
Tengyu Machinery Manufacture Co., Ltd., for their technical and
experimental cooperate. Financial support from Jiangsu Tengyu Machinery
Manufacture Co., Ltd. is also appreciated.

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Cite the article: Jiafeng Yao, Baochun Lu, Chris Zhang, Michio Sadatomi (2016). Optimal Design of Hydraulic System for an Industrial Press Machine for
Performance Improvement and Noise Reduction. Open Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 1(1) : 19-24.