How Maintenance Can Prevent Hydraulic System Failure?

How Maintenance Can Prevent Hydraulic System Failure?

Many consumers associate any malfunction of the hydraulic and pneumatic seals with the quality of the oil used, forgetting one simple fact – oil is always an indicator of how the system is being operated. Up to 70% of hydraulic cylinder piston seals failures are due to the condition of the oil. Moreover, if you analyze these failures in more detail, one-third of them are associated with the wrong selection of the oil itself, two thirds – with the purity of the oil and the quality of the filter elements.

Today, a large number of equipment and machinery are in operation, equipped with hydraulic systems from various hydraulic seal suppliers. Problems arise with equipment that has come off the warranty – outdated, outdated physically, and morally.

Problems encountered in the operation of hydraulic systems are usually caused by the following factors:

  1. Lack of routine maintenance – This includes: violation of the oil change period, cleaning the hydraulic system, changing filter elements, eliminating leaks, checking the compliance of the technical parameters of the hydraulic cylinder piston seals (pressure, flow, oil level);
  2. Incorrect choice of working fluid – the use of oils with characteristics that do not correspond to the operating mode;
  3. Use of components that do not meet the requirements and parameters of the system. For example, such parts as hydraulic units and assemblies, filter elements, hydraulic and pneumatic seals, high-pressure hoses;
  4. Incorrect setting of the hydraulic system – valves, pump regulators, pressure switches.

The companies service modern hydraulic equipment made of highly qualified specialists with the help of high-precision diagnostic devices that display information about problems on your computer. The latter should indicate methods of troubleshooting. This approach is increasingly being used. Road construction, communal and other machines operate in difficult operating conditions. In this case, most of the failures occur due to the malfunction of components of the hydraulic systems.

If a malfunction has resulted in the loss of functions of the machine, and/or adversely affects the safety of its operation, or damages the environment (for example, a break in the high-pressure hose), the machine must be stopped immediately.

To ensure safety when stopping the machine, the following measures must be taken:

  • Lower all suspended working parts of the machine or fix them mechanically;
  • Relieve pressure in the entire hydraulic system;
  • Discharge all accumulators;
  • Relieve pressure from pressure transducers;
  • Turn off the electrical control system;
  • Disconnect the power supply.

It should be borne in mind that hydraulic oils used in hydraulic drives as a working fluid are low-compressible compared to gas and expand slightly when pressure decreases. However, in those places of the hydraulic system where there may be compressed gas (due to insufficient deaeration or when a hydraulic accumulator is connected), the pressure should be reduced very carefully.

Failure of the hydraulic seal of the machine requires a quick “diagnosis” and immediate decision-making. Even if there is no literate nearby specialist, and from the diagnostic tools there are only simple measuring instruments, it is possible to determine the causes of a hydraulic system malfunction quite accurately and quickly, using a logical method of finding them. At the same time, it is necessary to understand well the basic principles of hydraulics and to know the basics of operation and structure of each element of the hydraulic drive.

Analysis of incoming requests to the technical support allows the specialist to classify typical malfunctions of hydraulic systems, identify the causes that caused them and propose methods of elimination. If you are looking forward to buying a hydraulic seal make sure it is from a reputable supplier around you.