The original life cycle bathtub curve was based on the cycle of human life. And at some point last century it was adapted by reliability engineers working in the electronics manufacturing industry to graphically represent the failure rate of their products. As you can see from its depiction below, the Observed Failure Rate–the top, bathtub curve, is the product of … Read more

Clause 5.4.6.5.1 a) of ISO 4413:2010 “Hydraulic fluid power – General rules and safety requirements for systems and their components” states: “hose assemblies shall be constructed from hoses that have not been previously used in operation as part of another hose assembly…”

This means squeezing a new end onto a hydraulic hose that has previously been in service … Read more

One of our members wrote me about a case study he read in which the life of a mineral hydraulic oil in a mobile hydraulic machine was extended from the 4,000 hours recommended by the machine’s manufacturer to 17,000 hours. The question raised was: “is this really possible?”

The first thing to keep in mind is that hydraulic oil should … Read more