Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
Contact us today:
(847) 934-4500
tdaro@bernardandcompany.com
Advanced Machine & Engineering Co. (AME) will be exhibiting their machine tool component products in both the East and West buildings this year at IMTS 2014. In the West building, at booth W-2405, they will be showing their fixturing product lines under the Amrok brand name, which consists of the following products:
• Amrok Epoxy-mineral Tombstones
• Amrok Cast Iron Tombstones
• Triag Modular Workholding
• Jakob Clamping
Amrok Epoxy Tombstone
Click here to add AME to your IMTS Show Planner!
In the East building, at booth E-5718, they will be showing the remainder of their product lines consisting of the following products:
• Amlok Rod Locks
• Ott-jakob Power Drawbars
• Stotz Air Gaging
• Spieth, Ambush & Amdisk Precision Components
• Ott Gears
• Sitema Press Safety
• Amsaw Carbide Production Saws
Click here to add AME to your IMTS Show Planner!
Also see their sister company Hennig Inc. for machine protection products at booth E-5610.
Click here to add Hennig to your IMTS Show Planner!
For more information, visit www.ame.com or contact:
Tim Waterman
ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO.
2500 Latham St.
Rockford, IL 61103
Phone: 815-316-5277
Fax: 815-962-6483
E-mail: info@ame.com
Connect with AME online: 
Hennig Inc. will be exhibiting their machine protection products at IMTS 2014. In the East building, at booth E-5610, they will be showing the following products:
• Chip Conveyors
• Chip Disc Filtration (CDF) Systems
• Telescopic Steel Covers
• Folded Bellows
• Flex-Protect Systems
• Machine Enclosures
• Roll-up & Flexible Apron Covers
• Wiper Systems
• XYZ-Modules
Hennig Chip Conveyor
Click here to add Hennig to your IMTS Show Planner!
Also see their sister company, Advanced Machine & Engineering Co., at booths W-2405 and E-5718 for machine tool component products.
Click here to add AME to your IMTS Show Planner!
For more information contact:
Tim Waterman
Hennig Inc.
9900 N. Alpine Rd.
Machesney Park, IL 61115
(815) 316-5277
info@hennig.ame.com
www.hennigworldwide.com
Connect with Hennig online: 
Aquatic Development Group uses specially modified Amlok® product from Advanced Machine & Engineering to protect movable pool floor stability at Ithaca College
AFW™ pool raising and lowering system, designed by Aquatic Development Group, operates on a series of hydraulic rams connected by a rebar structure, to evenly and smoothly raise and lower the pool floor. Especially useful when floor is occupied by aquatic therapy patients or water aerobic participants.
Aquatic Development Group (ADG) of Cohoes, New York is a professional design, manufacturing and construction firm serving the waterpark, resort, hotel aquarium, aquatic therapy and commercial/institutional swimming pool markets. The company’s recreational aquatic creations range from Disney to the Wisconsin Dells, plus a diverse group of institutional and physical therapy applications are included in the company’s successes. Among ADG’s many unique designs is the AFW™ movable pool floor system that allows depth adjustment from deck level down to deeper water for various uses, including physically-challenged patient aquatic therapy. The system is also used routinely in pools adapted for competitive swimming, diving, water polo and other activities, where the depth adjustment is beneficial and allows more multi-purpose use of a facility.
At the touch of a button on the master control module, the pool floor is raised and lowered by a system of synchronized multiple hydraulic cylinders that work to maintain consistent floor level throughout the process. ADG determined it was necessary to include a mechanical locking system that would secure the cylinder rods in position, at all points of travel, especially when the floor was occupied by physical therapy patients, water aerobics participants etc. The floor also featured a passive mechanical pulley system to maintain the floor position in the event of a catastrophic hydraulic failure.
…and then lowered smoothly into position for therapy with minimal patient upset.
Used for aquatic therapy, the pool floor can be position at deck level…
On a recent project using this system at Ithaca College (Ithaca, New York), as ADG Engineering Manager Rob Schiavi details, “We had a four-cylinder ram system with a rebar structure that was designed so that any two diagonally opposed cylinders could malfunction without compromising the stability or safety of the floor and its occupants.” He also notes that the company had developed a special 304L stainless steel and non-skid, chemically-impervious PVC floor grating that was considerably lighter weight but somewhat less stable than conventional concrete pool flooring.
Illustration of pool bottom showing AFW™ design of stainless steel and non-skid PVC flooring.
The hydraulic circuits operate on a shuttle valve system with passive engage ram failure. Eliminating the mechanical pulley system on the design results in a smoother transitioning of the pool floor level, particularly important when people are present, Schiavi notes.
In designing the hydraulic ram system and in search of an appropriate cylinder locking protection system, ADG turned to its local subcontractor, who recommended the Amlok® system of hydraulic cylinder rod locks from Advanced Machine & Engineering (Rockford, Illinois), a longtime supplier of hydraulic and pneumatic rod locks to industrial and commercial applications worldwide. AME Business Development Manager Ken Davis explains, “We saw this project as an ideal application for our hydraulic rod locks, with one particular challenge, namely, the ingestion of chlorinated pool water.” To overcome this challenge, a modification was made to the seal design and materials on the four stainless steel rod locks to be installed on the ram system built by ADG’s subcontractor (click here for ram system specs). Each lock has the capacity to provide a locking force to 50,000 lbs. at 1500 psi release pressure (click here for locking force specs).
RCH Series Amlok® hydraulic rod locks hold cylinders in place and automatically seize cylinders in position, in the event of a catastrophic power loss.
During normal operation, the hydraulic rod locks used on this application (RCH Series) allow free movement of the cylinder through the lock housing, as the supplied hydraulic pressure maintains an open position on the lock. When the desired pool floor level is achieved, the hydraulic pressure is removed and the cylinder is mechanically locked into position. However, in the event of a catastrophic power loss or other hydraulic system failure, when the pressure is removed, the lock immediately clamps to retain the cylinder securely in its present position until power is restored and the lock release is again activated.
AME worked closely with its local distributor, Airline Hydraulics Corp. (Bensalem, Pennsylvania) to supply this system to ADG.
For more information on this story, please contact:
Rob Schiavi, Engineering Manager
Aquatic Development Group
13 Green Mountain Drive
Cohoes, NY 12047
Phone: 518-783-0038
Web: www.aquaticgroup.com
Or
Ken Davis, Business Development Manager
ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO.
2500 Latham St.
Rockford, IL 61103
Phone: 815-316-5277
Fax: 815-962-6483W
E-mail: info@ame.com
Web: www.ame.com
Connect with AME online:
AZ-10 underwater wellhead connection tree, built by Argus Subsea of Houston, Texas.
Argus Subsea uses hydraulic rod locks from AME to secure underwater oilfield trees at 5000-6000’ depths to 3000 psi and 50,000 pounds of axial holding
Argus Subsea produces its AZ-10 fully concentric, vertical mono-bore subsea tree design for rapid field development. Originally designed for low net present value (NPV), marginal and smaller fields, where the capital investment containment is critical and the need exists for off-the-shelf hardware, the AZ-10 can be run on any rig, regardless of moonpool size or accessibility through a V-door or port side. Essentially, according to Earl Broussard, the company’s director of sales & marketing, “Anywhere a rig can power a BOP, the AZ-10 can operate effectively. And, being a standard horizontal tree design with a universal tubing hanger system that runs in any 18-3/4”, 10,000 or 15,000 psi wellhead, with a concentric design for all downhole and tubing hanger-to-tree interface, it can be quickly put into service.” In fact, the company’s literature boasts a typical reduction in time to first oil of fifteen months, with lower CAPEX and OPEX costs, less drilling and wellhead completion cost, plus reduced third-party cost.
The AZ-10 is currently rated at 10,000 psi working pressure and 6000’ water depth and is designed to the standards of API 17D, API 6A, PR2, NACE MR0175 and AV1 PR-2 USV. The unit weighs approximately 50,000 pounds and is light enough to be handled safely with rig cranes and easily transported to the moonpool. The AZ-10 can be deployed through any Generation-2 semi-submersible or newer generation rig’s moon pool. A much simpler design than most horizontal or vertical trees, the AZ-10 requires only five running tools versus 20-30 typically found on comparable subsea tree systems. The units are designed for 20 years of service life in production, injection or well test operations.
AMLOK rod lock highlighted on tree. Each rod lock operates to 3000 psi and provides 50,000 pounds of axial holding force at depths of 5000-6000’. Special construction, porting and heat treatment were utilized in the manufacture of these devices.
The hanger system operates on a lock and seal system that uses mechanical and hydraulic sealing within the tubing hanger. A key component designed into the AZ-10 is the AMLOK® hydraulic rod lock, provided by Advanced Machine & Engineering (AME) of Rockford, Illinois, a designer and builder of various rod locks for both hydraulic and pneumatic holding, in the event of a power loss. AME rod locks are typically found on all types of off-highway and construction equipment, as well as materials handling devices, machine tools and elsewhere, used to secure a cylinder rod in place to prevent further motion.
For the application on the Argus Subsea trees, according to Shane Hatfield, AME sales manager, several challenges were apparent and a few were not. The obvious obstacles were the depth and the pressures involved. The maximum load was to be 3000 psi and the axial holding force approximately 50,000 pounds at typical depths in the 5000-6000’ range. To address these issues, AME engineered the rod locks from 4140 steel with electroless nickel plating and a specially formulated two-part epoxy to create a completely sealed unit. Marine grade lubricant was used. “Those were the easy parts,” muses Hatfield.
With the external sealing system of the AZ-10 and the wide variety of connections involved, the construction of the rod lock also needed to accommodate the unique challenges of force over distance in a wide window of installation conditions. Since the customer was very cost-sensitive, it was necessary for AME engineers to create a one-size-works-for-all unit and this presented considerable application engineering challenges. “This was the hard part,” recalls Hatfield.
Working with Chance Burton, the driving force behind the original engineering effort at Azura, the predecessor company to Argus, Hatfield and his team demonstrated AMLOK rod locks as the only design that worked immediately over the entire range of performance scenarios. 1500 psi release and 3000 psi compressive were needed to satisfy all conditions and the AME engineers successfully satisfied these criteria. Key factors in the success of the AMLOK design here are the spec
After an initial order of 10 units (2-4 used per tree), the business has remained steady, according to Hatfield. These rod locks have been used successfully on numerous installations of the AZ-10, where the connections to numerous wellhead equipment brands have varied considerably.
As the attached diagrams demonstrate, AME rod locks are actuated by a spring/collet mechanism upon loss of hydraulic power and unclamped by the restored pressure. They are built to accomplish a mechanical locking, holding a cylinder rod or machine shaft in position, up to the rated load, until power is restored and the locking mechanism released.
For more information on the subsea trees referenced in this story, please contact:
ARGUS SUBSEA 5510 Clara Road Houston, TX 77041 Phone: 713-983-7222 Fax: 713-983-7007 Email: info@argussubsea.com Web: www.argussubsea.com Attention: Earl Broussard, Director of Sales & Marketing
For more information on the rod locks referenced in this story, please contact:
Shane Hatfield, Sales Manager
ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO.
2500 Latham Street Rockford, IL 61103
Toll-Free: 800-225-4263
Phone: 815-962-6076
Fax: 815-962-6483
Email: shane@ame.com
Web: www.ame.com
AME-Advanced Machine & Engineering Co., is a manufacturer located in Rockford, Ill., serving the Machine Tool Industry with precision components and accessories, including spindle interface components, workholding devices and, through our sister company, Hennig, machine enclosures, chip removal and filtration systems. The Fluid Power – Safety markets are served with cylinder rod locks and Safety Catcher devices; and the Production Saw market with our AmSaw carbide saw machines and Speedcut blade products. AME has manufacturing partners and service centers around the world and across the U.S. To learn more, visit www.ame.com.
Hennig, Inc. designs and produces custom machine protection and chip/coolant management products for state-of-the-art machine tools. Hennig products are designed to protect against corrosion, debris and common workplace contaminants. Manufacturing facilities are located in the U.S., Germany, France, Czech Republic, Brazil, India, Japan, China and South Korea. Repair centers are located in Machesney Park, IL; Chandler, OK; Livonia, MI; Blue Ash, OH; Mexico City, Mexico; and Saltillo, Mexico. To learn more, visit www.hennigworldwide.com.
Please direct all inquiries from this article to:
Tim Waterman
ADVANCED MACHINE & ENGINEERING CO.
2500 Latham St.
Rockford, IL 61103
Phone: 815-316-5277
Fax: 815-962-6483
E-mail: info@ame.com
Connect with AME online: