5 Reasons Your Hydraulics Are Costing Your Business a lot of expense
Are you interested in what can cut costs when it comes to Hydraulic Power in your business?
We can only imagine that the answer is ‘yes’ as most of us are. Well, we’ve got some good news for you. Today, we’re going to look at what the most common reasons are that hydraulic components fail, even those that have not been in service for long.
These points are worth making a note of:
1. Oil changes. It’s not necessary to keep changing the oil unless you have one of thes2 following conditions occurring.
The oil has degraded so far that the original additives have changed its makeup. Changing oil just because you feel it’s about time it’s changed is going to cost you a lot of outlay as oil is expensive. The larger your reservoir, the worse off you’ll be. However, if you keep operating your system with degraded oil, then that could cost you even more. Even changing the oil based on how long it’s been in service isn’t going to help. Oil needs to be analysed to fully understand its condition.
If you discover that your oil is contaminated with particles, the more economical manner to deal with this is to remove the particles through filtration.
So in summary, only change the oil when the additives have been depleted and the base oil is useless. You will have to perform oil analysis to make your decision.
2. Filter changes. It’s the same story with hydraulic filters. Changing them based on hours in service could mean that you’re too early or even too late. Early brings about waste as their capacity is not reached and you’ll be throwing away an unused amount of filter time. Changing them late is also an error as the particles will not be removed from the oil and therefore, it could lower the lifespan of each component in the entire hydraulic system.
The most effective approach is to only change filters once they have become full of dirt, but prior to the bypass valve opening. This may require a mechanism to be added that will monitor the pressure and deliver an alert when a point is reached. A clogging indicator is one of the most basic methods of handling this. However, continuous monitoring of pressure drop through the use of a differential pressure gauge or a transducer is the optimal solution. In summary, changing filters on hours is not maintenance effective, or cost effective.
3. Heat. If you’re driving along and you notice that your car engine is overheating, you would most likely stop. Most equipment owners won’t run an engine that is overheating. They know it’s going to cause problems. However, the same cannot be said about operators of hydraulic system.
Just as with a car, running an overheated engine is the quickest way to destroy hydraulic seals, hoses and other components. How hot is too hot? The answer depends on the viscosity of the oil in addition to the hydraulic components. Viscosity lessens with increasing temperature, so the answer is when the temperature is high enough to stop the oil lubricating as it should.
When it comes to hydraulic components, it’s worth noting that a vane pump needs more viscosity than a piston pump would. If you have a vane pump in your hydraulic system, then you’ll want at least 25 centistokes to be maintained.
Temperatures over 82°C will cause damage to seals and hoses in addition to accelerating the oil’s degradation. Never allow your hydraulic system to operate above 82°C with a viscosity lower than 10 centistokes.
4. The wrong oil. The most important element of any hydraulic system is always the oil. It’s what keeps everything lubricated and it is also what transfers the power. With these two major tasks to handle, keeping an eye on viscosity is a must.
The viscosity of the oil is what will determine the temperature at which the system should be run. You may have heard this referred to as temperature operating window or TOW. A temperature that is too high will prevent the oil from flowing or lubricating as it should. Oil that has a viscosity that is too low will not deliver adequate lubrication either. Keeping an eye on this will also ensure that you power isn’t lost due to either internal leakage or mechanical friction.
You don’t want increased power consumption as it will cost you more. The best way to handle this is to check what your machines temperature operating window is and to ensure that your machine operates within that window at all times. We won’t go into how to do this here, as it’s rather complex, but it’s something that does need to be addressed.
5. Filter locations. There are two locations for filters that cause the most problems – the piston pump and motor case line and the pump inlet. You may have a strainer attached to the pump inlet to collect any ‘garbage’ in your oil, but this oil is being drawn from a reservoir, not somewhere where there should be any garbage.
The pump inlet is also positioned off the bottom, so there should not be a lot of dirt passing through. By placing filters here, it can affect whether you get maximum pump life. If there is any form of restricted intake, it can reduce the lifespan of the gear pump by as much as half. Hydraulic pumps are not built with ‘sucking’ in mind! The way to handle this is to remove any suction strainers or depth filters on either the pump inlet or the piston pump.
Applying these points should be helpful to any hydraulic system operators and should deliver methods to save yourself and your business great expense.