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Hydraulic Systems

Hydraulic systems are often some of the most critical applications across many different industries. What’s unique to hydraulic systems is the fluid not only lubricates moving components such as hydraulic pumps and drives but it also allows the system to do useful “work”. Factor into that, the sensitivity that hydraulic pumps and valves have for contamination, it’s no wonder that the health and cleanliness of the fluid is the primary driver of hydraulic system reliability.

 

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While larger equipment often has a custom designed hydraulic system, many plants have a number of smaller hydraulic power units (HPUs) supplied by Fluid Power Suppliers. Many of these systems come with an industry standard filler breather cap, a column level gauge mounted to the reservoir, an inline full flow filter, often rated at 10-20 microns, and sometimes a return line filter of similar efficiency.

With clearances inside hydraulic valves ranging from 1-4 microns, upgrading an HPU to both exclude and remove small particles and moisture is a simple, inexpensive way to improve overall performance an reliability and avoid the damages that contamination may cause, including the formation of rust or other oxidation, accelerated component wear, orifice blockage, depletion of additives, the appearance of different chemicals, and oil degradation. By excluding and removing contamination, the life span of the hydraulic system will be extended due to longer component and fluid service life.

In addition to extending component life, clean, dry hydraulic fluid also lasts longer! This not only saves money from the direct cost of an oil change, but it also helps companies reduce their carbon footprint by reducing the amount of hydraulic fluid used annually. Furthermore, an overall approach to system cleanliness also prevents downtime and related costs. When a hydraulic system faces unexpected downtime due to essential component failure from contaminated fluid, profits decrease while production costs increase.

An easy first step is to replace the 40-µm filler/breather cap with a hydraulic adapter kit. This manifold mounts directly onto the same 6-hole bolt pattern used on most HPUs allowing for the addition of a desiccant breather, quick connect for adding oil and even an oil sample port without complex or expensive system modifications.

For HPUs that don’t have an easy means of checking levels, a drain port adapter can be added. This allows for a column sight glass to be added as well as a quick connect for easy oil drains and offline filtration and even an oil sight glass to look for bottom sediment and water (BS&W).

For more critical systems where high levels of fluid cleanliness are required, adding an offline filtration unit (OLU) can help keep cleanliness levels below 15/13/10, protecting critical servo and proportional valves from contamination induced failures.

By adding just these few, simple modifications, companies can perform basic maintenance PMs such as level checks, oil top offs and oil sampling while ensuring that their hydraulic fluid is isolated from the ambient plant environment during every phase of maintenance and operations.

Modify Your Equipment to Seal and Protect It

Receive a downloadable plan for your specific make and model of equipment. Modification plans include simple addition of hardware such as quick connects, level gauges, breathers and sample ports to facilitate lubrication best practices.


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