Ideas for automating hydraulic forming press

[Horhes]

The ACR9000 is a great option. I added a rotation sensor in there and it got a little better. By the way, I put these sensors almost everywhere, thanks to the fact that I have connections with their supplier, who sends them to me at good prices. And why not Just in case, I'll leave them on the website, they work with many sensors there on an industrial scale.​

 

[Taylor Turner]

Do you have a fixed or variable displacement pump?

 

[kallileo]

@Taylor Turner
No idea. I will have to ask the company which will service the hydraulic unit.

I have attached photos of the control panel and the mechanical controls of the hydraulic unit.

The hydraulic cylinder is single acting. There just one outlet on the hydraulic unit that is pressing the oil into the inlet of the cylinder. No other pressure hoses are connected to the press.
In one the lever is used to move the press up to work on the workpiece. Then in second position the press is moving down due to its weight very slowly. When the lever is in neutral position the press doesn't move.

It seems that nobody really knows what exactly the black knob (1) do.
As far as I understand it's is used to controller the maximum pressure applied to the cylinder.

So since the requirements are very low I'm just going to replace the lever with two push buttons and install a mechanical safety pressure switch and a pressure transducer to provide feedback to the PLC.