Improvement in Hydraulics Technology

12 October 2020 by Mike Retford

Whilst looking at a hydraulic application that required no electrically operated valves, it occured to me how much hydraulics has moved along in the 30 years that I have been in the business. Proportional valves had been around a few years before I started and cleanliness control was also understood but not widely adopted.

I have tried to source manually operated directional valves with a push application and many manufacturers have made these valves obsolete. Position and pressure sensors  are now being used with electrically operated valves to sequence hydraulics on machines. Electrohydraulics has now developed so much that without the electronics, the control of hydraulics would be very difficult. Proportional hydraulic valves have become very sensistive and fast acting so that positioning and pressure control functions can be achieved with relative ease. Pumps can now be flow and pressure controlled, which has helped the applications needing varying flows and pressures. This has made machine control more efficient. Sun Hydraulics now have a phone app where you can connect with a valve and set its operating parameters, wow, a long way from proportional cards and pot adjustors!

Contamination control has improved greatly and filtration elements are of a high quality and readily available. Particle counters have made the checking of fluid cleanliness very easy and inline particle counters provide real time information on a systems oil cleanliness. For a long time fluid cleanliness has been a major maintenance issue and now the industry has the tools to make sure that customers know the condition of their oil and can operate their systems reliably.

Data loggers have greatly improved with some fantastic products giving realtime pressure, flow and temperature data. Trouble shooting has been made easier as the collection of data from machines is now possible.

The development of electronics alongside hydraulics will continue as we strive to get more efficiency out of our systems and the information on how the systems are running will be relayed to customers in real time. Maintenance can then be pre planned instead of reactive to breakdowns.

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