As a means of power transmission, hydraulics has many advantages. But overall efficiency is NOT one of them. A single-reduction gearbox has an efficiency of 98 to 99 percent, double-reduction 96 to 97 percent and triple-reduction 95 percent. And a chain drive in good condition has an efficiency of 97 to 98 percent.

A high-performance piston pump has an efficiency … Read more

I’m currently living in the Snowy Mountains region in eastern Australia, near a small village called Jindabyne, which is about 5 hours drive from Sydney. Jindabyne is 3000 ft (944 meters) above sea level.

As you’d expect, I regularly see hydraulic machinery working on roads and construction sites in the area and I often wonder how they perform on a … Read more

A large part of being “smart” in any area of expertise comes from doing your homework. And this is especially true with hydraulics. Here’s a story from one of our members which illustrates this point pretty well:

“I’m fairly new to hydraulics and I thought coating the interior of a hydraulic tank I’d made with a zinc spray (cold galvanizing … Read more