In the current trend of increasing energy costs, which appears to be underpinned by big-picture issues such as peak oil and carbon emission reduction, there is a growing awareness of the need to make hydraulic systems more efficient.

The three obvious ways of doing this are:

1.    Use components with higher native efficiency: a piston pump instead of a gear … Read more

One of our members we’ll call John (not his real name)wrote me this last week:

“I’m an owner/operator of a small concrete pumping business. We have 12 years experience operating concrete pumps but limited knowledge of hydraulics.

I have no faith in the manufacturer’s dealer. They don’t give away any information and I’m not happy with the work they do. … 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