Whether your equipment is dragging, lifting, digging, hauling, moving, or turning, you’re relying heavily on hydraulics. And it’s without a doubt that the technology of hydraulics has come along way in the past few centuries.
Encyclopedia Britannica states, “Liquids in motion or under pressure did useful work for man for many centuries before French scientist-philosopher Blaise Pascal and Swiss physicist Daniel Bernoulli formulated the laws on which modern hydraulic-power technology is based. Pascal’s law, formulated in about 1650, states that pressure in a liquid is transmitted equally in all directions; for example, when water is made to fill a closed container, the application of pressure at any point will be transmitted to all sides of the container.”
The useful work of hydraulics has come along way since the sixteen hundreds, and effective hydraulic management and control systems are imperative to an operation’s success more than ever. From maintaining annular pressures within wellbore pressure boundaries when drilling, operating hydraulic fracturing pumps, to calibrating landing gear hydraulic components, the uses for hydraulics are seemingly endless.
For example, our customers use our switches to manage or control the pressure in the system by monitoring the pressure and turning pumps off or on (604G-series & 605G-series), alerting the operators when the filters are becoming clogged (604D-series or 605D-series) by monitoring the pressure differential between the filer inlets and outlets and to monitor the temperature of the oils (6900T-series) which directs the oil through a heat-exchanger as it begins to heat up from use. There are lubricating systems, which simply pump oil through complex equipment and back through the reservoir, filter and heat exchangers. There are hydraulic systems that also include hydraulic cylinders and pistons used to move or position heavy items.
Hydraulic Maintenance
Because the systems are more rugged, efficient, stable, and accurate, they’re called on for more complex jobs than ever before, making their maintenance of extreme importance. Companies hemorrhage thousands of dollars when their equipment is left to leak more than the manufacturers suggested amount, and drip away hard-earned money because of neglect.
“The most common cause of excessive internal leakage is wear of component surfaces during normal operation, however, leakages can also occur as the result of poor system design, incorrect overhaul of rebuilt components, incorrect component selection, and poor quality control levels during manufacturing,” according to Machinery Lubrication. “And reliability, system performance, and increased operating temperatures are the first visual signs of internal leakage.”
High quality products engineered under strict standards, effective record keeping, equipment surveillance, visual inspections, and performance monitoring, are key to making sure the systems are performing optimally, and projects are meeting estimates.
High tech equipment has led us to immeasurable new heights, but it’s not without the proper management of the controls and systems that the limits can be exceeded.