It appears that the large cylinder is single acting. So the small cylinders are used to retract the large one and follow it in extension.
Yes, many presses are designed like this. There is a fill valve that allows the big ram to suck oil , from a non pressurized but usually gravity fed tank, into it while the small cylinders are pushing the the platen to which all cylinders are connect. I have heard different names for the smaller cylinder. Jack cylinders or kicker cylinder are names I have heard. Usually one servo quality valve is. When the ram is extended to the point that pressure starts to increase then the fill valve is shut. The controller must switch to a force or pressure control mode bit controlling the force is relatively easy because the main ram requires a lot of oil to change the pressure much.
This is an example of a press with two 8 inch diameter jack cylinders and a 20 inch diameter main ram. I did this back in 1998.
The first 10 seconds the pressure is closing.
The fill valve is shut so now the speed must be reduced.
The motion is not optimal because the platen should have moved closer before slowing down. That would reduce about 3 seconds from the cycle time.
At about 13 seconds the actual pressure ( gray ) starts to increase.
The actual position ( red ) cannot keep up with the target position (cyan).
During this time the control output ( green ) increase a lot because because the main ram was sucking in oil at atmospheric pressure and oil must be added to increase pressure.
When the actual pressure ( gray ) reaches 1500 psi the controller switched to pressure control mode.
The white line is the target pressure that ramps up to the final set point at 2000 psi.
Notice that the actual pressure follows the target pressure almost perfectly. Also notice that control output is proportional to the pressure ramp rate.
After holding pressure for about 2 seconds the target pressure is ramped down in a controlled manner. This keeps any air pockets in the material being pressed from exploding.
Sometimes the pressing and releasing is down a few times to press out any air in the material.
Peter Nachtwey
Delta Computer Systems