A nine-bar linkage for mechanical forming presses

Mechanical presses are machine tools capable of imposing tensile and/or compressive stresses on the workpiece in the amount, location, and direction, and for the period of time needed, to accomplish the specified operation. This paper proposes a nine-bar linkage applied to mechanical forming presses, composed of a five-bar linkage, a slider-crank four-bar linkage and a connecting link. The motion of the nine-bar linkage has been studied by kinematic analysis first. Then a design procedure for the nine-bar linkage is developed. Combining the linkage synthesis and the trial and error method in order to optimize the dimensions of this nine-bar linkage for the ram cycle and the space requirements.