Historic Heavy Presses of the World

Since World War II several nations installed competing and complimentary heavy, closed die forging presses.  This family of presses represents major capital investments in truly enabling forging technology, yielding extremely large and efficient monolithic structures exploited throughout the world, especially in the aerospace industry.   Upon review of the history of this class of presses it became apparent that all of these historic, heavy, closed die forging presses deserve recognition.  In 2013 ASM International and the Forging Industry Association selected this family of unique forging equipment as ASM International Historic Landmarks.  This presentation explores the past, present and future of these presses especially as they relate to aerospace applications.  At present this family produces a variety of intriguing parts.  The future of behemoths is quite interesting with respect to replacement, upgrades, and competition.  Although alike in several ways, each press is different with its own respective design features, manufacturing capabilities, technical achievements, and supporting cast of people.  This presentation prompts us to remember that “big metal” will be around for a long time come.