The whole stroke of slider and effective stroke under rated loading are all large for elbow-bar press. Because of unreasonable structure, the slider at the upper dead position would be in a bad condition under loading, or even engender self-locking due to existence of clearance and friction. According to this phenomenon, forces acting on the slider at the upper dead point were analyzed. The structure of the press was analyzed by using the virtual prototype technology. Some improvements were proposed for the structure. The analysis results of improved structure show that the loaded condition and the movement stability of the slider have been improved significantly, and the improved structure can meet the work requirements.