Is hydraulic power still a major industry player?
A good question! And one that many hydraulic enthusiasts and experts alike have posed in recent times.
In this blog, we will elaborate further and explain how Hydraulics plays very much a vital role in manufacturing in a range of industries and helps to keep the economy in check.
People in industry had believed for a long while that the hydraulics industry had come to a head and didn’t have anything new to offer, thus new and improved alternative technology would take over. These claims were later debunked as the hydraulic industry itself welcomed new, cutting edge technology and advances in future technology to keep hydraulics at the pinnacle of the industry.
As well as technology, improved training schemes have played a large part in maintaining the hydraulics industry, specifically fault testing and identifying system faults and errors and how to manage them thus helping to eliminate costly mistakes which could potentially cause major machinery downtimes and expensive repairs and replacements. With the new designs and developments implemented, hydraulic power has also become more eco-friendly thanks to more power saving, efficient system design. The materials used in unit construction are also being improved constantly to aid system reliability and efficiency.
Hydraulic power’s main industry competitor is pneumatics, which uses gas or pressurised air rather than fluid which hydraulic applications use. While pneumatics is a clean system to use in general as it makes use of air, it is limited in its power range compared to hydraulics, which deal with heavy loads in particular, a lot more easily. This gives it the advantage in applications such as commercial vehicle tilting bodies and lifts among others. This is down to the hydraulic oil used being non compressible so a smooth hydraulic action can be achieved whereas air can fluctuate due to differing environmental conditions.
Where safety in concerned, hydraulics come out on top as the fluid used is stored energy and any leaks and other issues can be easily identified whereas with pneumatics, compressed air can cause issues when it builds up and has the potential to cause an explosion.
Talking of leaks, hydraulics has also moved forwards leaps and bounds in terms of tackling leakage with more secure hose locking mechanisms and better safety measures in general. The same is true for motion controllers as modern systems act smoothly and effectively to reduce any system shocks that could potentially occur.
Pressure control is another area that has seen large improvements over the years with loads being controlled more effectively and taking over from relief valves that, while effective in their own right, struggled to deal with pressure spikes which could adversely affect system operation.
So overall, the worries that concerted a number of doubters as to the effectiveness of hydraulic power today are unfounded and it remains a main player in a number of crucial industries and this looks set to continue long into the future.
To learn more about how hydraulic power units work, here is a useful article from our website.