Air hammers are a great piece of invention. They have made the work of craftsmen very easy and simple. The craftsmen can now easily shape a piece of metal in minutes, with the help of the air hammer, which otherwise would have taken hours or days and also lot of physical strain and labour. The air hammers puts pressure to the tune of several dozens PSI (pounds per square inch) on a metal piece and thus the work that should take days, if done by hand, takes only a few minutes when done by the hammer.
The air hammers can be either hand held or stationary. The hand held hammers are connected to an air tank with the help of a tube, from where pressurised air reaches the head of the hammer. These hand held hammers are generally used in households or in small factories or motor repairing shops.
Power Hand Tools
The stationary air hammers are of much bigger size and are more powerful than the hand held ones. They are used for bulk and heavy duty work. These stationary air hammers are generally used in factories where vehicles or other machineries are manufactured in bulk.
The air hammers have different heads for different activities. For shaping or smoothing work, a hammer head is used. For scoring or cutting work, a chisel head is used. These hammers are both useful as well as dangerous tools. So, extreme precaution must always be maintained, while using these hammers, by the operator.
The pressure in the air hammer also varies depending up on the work it being used for and the type of target metal it is working on. For simple smoothing jobs, generally low pressure is used. When work is being done on soft metals like aluminium and copper, then also low pressure is used. When work is done on more hard metals, like stainless steel or iron, much more pressure is needed and high-pressure is exerted through suitable air hammer. For shaping jobs also, high pressure is needed.