I was asked recently to conduct failure analysis on a hydraulic motor that was the subject of a warranty claim. The motor had failed after only 500 hours in service, some 7,000 hours short of its expected service life.
Inspection revealed that the motor’s bearings had failed through inadequate lubrication. This was the result of the hydraulic motor being started with insufficient oil in its case (housing).
A common misconception among maintenance personnel with limited training in hydraulics, is that because oil circulates through hydraulic components in operation, no special attention is required during installation, beyond installing the component and connecting its hoses.… continue reading »
Sometime ago I was involved – in a supervisory capacity – in the planned change out of components on a hydraulic machine. The design of the machine’s hydraulic power unit was the all-too-common, cheap and nasty, everything mounted on the tank lid variety. You know the ones – electric motor mounted vertically, with pump submerged in the tank. They’re cheap and easy to build, but a real pain in the butt for anyone who has to work on them.
In a previous post, I described the danger associated with the intensification of pressure in a double-acting hydraulic cylinder. In this post, I will explain how to use the intensification effect to test the integrity of the piston seal in a double-acting hydraulic cylinder. But before attempting this test procedure, it is absolutely essential that the danger associated with pressure intensification in a hydraulic cylinder is fully understood. Therefore,