What Is an Air Hammer?
An air hammer uses compressed air to reciprocate the piston of an air cinder built into the main body. It continuously strikes the end of a chisel with the piston, and the tip of the chisel is pressed against the target object to deliver impact.
It is a type of pneumatic tool that is compact, lightweight, and powerful and is used for many types of work, such as stripping and crushing.
There are two general types of air hammers: air chippers and air hammers, each of which is used for different purposes.
Uses of Air Hammers
Air hammers are used for various purposes depending on the type.
Air Chipper
a. Air hammer (air chipping hammer)
This is a general type of air hammer used for chipping metal, stone, concrete, etc. It is also used for tasks such as removing rust, crushing, cutting, and peeling wall surfaces, and sanding castings. By replacing the chisel, simple staking, riveting, and shaft driving can also be performed.
b. Air flux hammer (air chipper)
This is the smallest and lightest type and is used to remove welding spatters, scale, and slag, as well as deburring, paint, and rust removal.
Air Hatcher
Air Concrete Breaker
As the name suggests, these air hammers are used to break up concrete and other materials.
Others
Other types of air hammers include the following:
- Diggers are used for concrete hacking and soil excavation.
- Sand hammers are used for cementing refractory bricks and sanding castings.
How to Select Air Hammers
It is a prerequisite to select the right type of air hammers for the intended use, the work to be done, and the type of object to be covered.
Specifications
The following performance items are important in selecting air hammers and should be selected in consideration of the differences in objects and the power required for crushing.
Examples include piston diameter, piston stroke, number of blows per minute (unit: bpm (times/min), min-1), operating air pressure (MPa), and air consumption (liter/min, m3/min).
Chisel
It is necessary to confirm the type of chisel that can be used and the applicable shaft diameter and select a suitable chisel for the work and object.
The chisel inlet of the air hammer’s body can be either round or square. The round chisel rotates with the object, but the square chisel does not.
The following chisel tip shapes are available and used in various applications:
- Flat chisels are used for tiling and scraping painted surfaces.
- Sheet metal chisels are used for cutting thin sheets.
- Point chisels are used for cutting concrete.
- Rivet chisels are used for cutting rivets and removing welding spatters.
- Scaling chisels remove concrete seepage from formwork and scrape off welding and residual materials.
Air Hose Connection Specifications
Air hose connections can be screwed on or dedicated couplers and plugs are used.
The main screw types used in the US are ASME/ANSI B 1.20.1 Tapered pipe threads.