Used American Hercules Press Brakes for Sale

American Hercules is an orphan brand in the best sense: no longer manufactured, no factory behind it, but a substantial installed base of heavily built American fabrication iron still working in shops across the country. The verifiable record centers on a trademark filing - AH AMERICAN HERCULES, serial number 73109962, filed December 17, 1976 by Pearl Equipment Company, Incorporated, registered specifically for plate rolls, hydraulic shears, and press brakes. Machines bearing the name appear with build dates from the late 1970s onward, and the brand is consistently identified as U.S.-built in the secondary market.

Beyond that, documented corporate history is thin. There is no active company website, no published founding date, and no successor organization providing support. The name also collides with several unrelated companies that share the Hercules name - Hercules Engine of Canton, Ohio; Hercules Manufacturing of Evansville, Indiana, a truck body builder; Hercules Machinery Corporation, a pile driving equipment maker; and Hercules Industries, an HVAC sheet metal distributor. None of them built this machinery. Rather than fill the gap with assumptions, this page states what the trademark record and machine population actually support.

The equipment itself is well documented through the machines that survive. Hydraulic shears run from roughly 6 feet through 12 feet of blade length in capacities up to 1/2 inch mild steel, typically with multiple hold-downs, adjustable rake, electric foot pedal, and power back gauges. Press brakes appear across a wide tonnage span, with 225 ton by 12 foot machines common and considerably larger units built - including 700 ton class hydraulic brakes. Plate bending rolls appear in configurations around 122 inch roll length with 10-3/4 inch lower rolls, power roll lift, power adjustment on all rolls, one-shot lube systems, operator consoles, and pre-bend capability.

The buying calculus on an orphan brand is different from a supported one, and mostly favorable on machines this simple. These are hydraulic and mechanical assemblies built from standard industrial components - cylinders, pumps, valves, motors, and contactors that are still commodity items - so a rebuild does not depend on a factory parts list. What is not commodity is anything proprietary: castings, weldments, blades ground to a specific geometry, and original electrical schematics. Inspect ram and bed alignment and check for frame deflection under load, since a sprung frame on a large brake is effectively unrepairable. On shears, evaluate blade condition and remaining regrind life, hold-down function across the full length, and rake adjustment. On press brakes, check cylinder seals and drift, ram parallelism across the bed, and whether the back gauge and any control retrofit are functional and documented. On plate rolls, check roll surface condition, pinion and drive wear, and bearing play. Because no factory support exists, a machine that arrives with its original electrical prints, tooling, and back gauge is worth materially more than an otherwise identical one without them - and control and back gauge retrofits from third-party suppliers are a well-established path on machines of this vintage.

Meadoworks is your trusted source for used American Hercules equipment. As third-generation industrial equipment dealers and AMEA-certified appraisers with over 50 years of experience, we offer quality-inspected American Hercules machines at competitive prices. Browse the 1 used American Hercules machine listed above, or call 800-323-0307 for equipment not yet listed.

Every machine includes detailed specifications and high-resolution photos, and inspection visits are available for most equipment. We ship worldwide with experienced rigging partners and offer financing for qualified buyers. Have American Hercules equipment to sell? Get a free valuation or contact our team.