Cudahy Forging, an operation of Ladish Company Inc., announced March 19 that refurbishments and upgrades to its Number 85 Hammer have been completed. The unit will return to service this week.
"We had an obligation to customers who depend on this resource to resume production as fast as possible, because the capabilities of this hammer are unmatched in the forging industry," said Kerry Woody, Ladish's president and CEO. According to Woody, maintenance was initiated in February and took six weeks to finish.
Gene Bunge, vice president of engineering at Ladish, reported that both the top and bottom rams of the five-story-tall counterblow hammer, each of which weighs approximately 375,000 pounds, were installed.
Bunge said, "It's been 15 years since we've replaced both rams during the same maintenance event. This was a major undertaking. It takes considerable time to disassemble a hammer of this size and properly put it back together."
According to Bunge, the engineers who commissioned the hammer in 1959 rated the unit's energy capability conservatively.
"We measured and verified the operational characteristics during reassembly," said Bunge. "Today we are confident in affirming not only the original baseline rating of 125,000mkg, but also the nominal operating energy of 150,000mkg. It's great to have this one-of-a-kind hammer producing parts again."
Ladish is a leading producer of highly engineered, technically advanced metal components for the jet engine, aerospace and general industrial markets. Ladish is headquartered in