Kuhn Air Hammers
Pneumatic forging hammers for blacksmiths. Made in Germany.
The information presented on this page for Kuhn air hammers comes from tool catalogs, blacksmith magazines, and reference materials and letters from the manufacturer and Centaur Forge.
New style Kuhn air hammers (K/CF22, K/CF40, K/CF50, etc.)
These are the new style hammers currently being produced by Kuhn.
The north American distributor for the newer style Kuhn air hammers is Centaur Forge. The page scan at left is from the 2003 Centaur catalog. These new model hammers use very little oil, misting of oil around the hammer is almost completely eliminated. This was a very new design that was made possible by advancement in air pump technology that was not available in the 1960s and 1970s when the earlier models were designed. I have no other information on this new style hammer and have not had the opportunity to see one of these hammers operating.
Centaur Forge is the north American distributor for the new Kuhn K/CF style hammers.
Go to the Centaur Forge website to see more on these hammers. http://www.centaurforge.com/
Manufactured in Augsburg Germany. The manufacturer's website: http://www.kuhn-maschinentechnik.de/luftschmiedehaemmer_de.html.
Available in the USA from Centaur Forge in Burlington, Wisconsin, USA.: http://www.centaurforge.com/.
Older style Kuhn air hammers ( KB1, K23, K12/42, K24/53 etc.)
These older style hammers are not currently being made. Thousands of these older style hammers have been in service since the early 1960s.
I have seen the newer model K24/53 hammer working. It was a very simple design in that there was only the on/off switch, and the throttle control treadle. As the machine is switched on, the ram immediately lifts and begins to reciprocate up and down at the top end of ram stroke. As the treadle is depressed, the ram begins oscillating up and down towards the anvil. Lots of huffing and puffing and the hammer runs with ease. This hammer runs at around 70 db. Almost no oil misting in the air. Actually I saw no oil misting but assumed there may be some that I didn't see. The hammer hits nice and hard and has excellent control. The owner was very happy with the machine.
Scans from old
Centaur Forge Catalogs. Centaur Forge printed a lot of really good
information in some of their older catalogs. Here are some scans from earlier Centaur
Forge catalogs. The first 6 pages date back
to 1989. And more recently from the 2003 catalog. Information includes the size of the hammer and charts showing the
comparisons of the sizes of bars that can be forged on a regular high production
or heavier bars that can be forged during "occasional" work. Great charts for
deciding on a size of hammer to purchase. Hammer sizes and weights, motor
horsepower, electrical and other information is given.
Sizes
and weight comparisons. From 1990 Centaur Forge Catalog.
The
name has changed but the hammers were still the same. An advertisement in the
British Blacksmith #47 from March 1988 explains the name change from Reiter to
Kuhn. Kuhn air hammers were sold previously under the name Reiter, and I think also
at one time under the name
Berger. Click on the thumbnail at left to see the
full size image from the magazine. Joseph Kuhn was plant manager for Alois
Reiter and he assumed ownership of the company after Mr. Reiter retired. He
continued making improvements and modernizations to this line of hammers and the
modern hammers have many important improvements over the earlier models. The
K/CF hammers are quieter and can run for longer periods of time between
necessary cool down period. For example, the earlier hammers were meant to run
for no longer than 10-12 hours at a time before cooling down for the night. The
later K12/42 - K24/53 models were quieter and could run roughly 12-16 hours
before cooling for the night. The K/CF hammers are also quieter than earlier
models and the latest improvements include a new rotary pump that runs more
efficiently and uses less horsepower to operate and new seal technology that
requires less lubrication and almost entirely eliminates misting of oil around
the hammer.
Page last updated on August 16, 2007.
There are more hammers and manufacturers and distributors to add to this page but I do not have time to find them all.
Page created April 16, 2006.