Hydraulic press machines are fundamental production equipment in forging, deep drawing, blanking, metal forming, and press-fit assembly operations across manufacturing industries. The frame structure of a hydraulic press must sustain large cyclic compressive and bending loads with minimal elastic deflection, adequate fatigue life, and sufficient structural stiffness to maintain press alignment throughout the working stroke. This paper presents the complete design, finite element analysis (FEA), and topology optimisation of a 100-tonne (981 kN) C-frame hydraulic press using ANSYS Mechanical 2024 R2. The initial frame design is based on analytical calculations per IS 7085:2006 and classical machine design procedures. Five load cases are simulated using SOLID186 elements: full rated load, eccentric loading (50 mm offset), 120% overload, cyclic fatigue loading, and post-optimisation verification. Mesh convergence is confirmed at 10 mm element size (426,800 elements, convergence 0.25%). The original frame exhibits a maximum Von Mises stress of 207.6 MPa at the inner corner of the C-frame throat the most critical stress location with a static safety factor of 1.20. Topology optimisation using the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) method with a 30% volume reduction target redistributes material to a structurally efficient configuration, reducing total frame mass by 24.8% (from 1842 kg to 1386 kg) while improving the static safety factor to 1.30 and increasing the first natural frequency by 12.0%. Bolt joint analysis, hydraulic cylinder design, and fatigue life estimation complete the structural design validation. The study provides a replicable, standard-compliant design methodology for C-frame hydraulic presses applicable to small and medium-scale manufacturing enterprises.
V. M. Jamadar (Thu,) studied this question.
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