{"id":2976,"date":"2024-09-09T07:59:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T23:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/?p=2976"},"modified":"2024-10-21T06:58:27","modified_gmt":"2024-10-20T22:58:27","slug":"the-hydraulic-equivalent-of-mechanical-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/all\/the-hydraulic-equivalent-of-mechanical-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hydraulic Equivalent of Mechanical Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hydraulicThe term pilot ratio refers to the ratio of two, discrete areas of a piston, spool or poppet on which opposing pressures act. The pilot area, on which pilot-pressure acts, is always the larger of the two areas. Working or system pressure acts on the smaller, opposing area. This means a relatively small pilot pressure can overcome a much larger working or system pressure. In other words, pilot ratio is the hydraulic equivalent of mechanical advantage.<\/p>\n

For example, consider a pilot-operated check valve with a pilot ratio of 4:1. If working or system pressure acting on the smaller poppet area, which opposes the larger pilot-piston area, is 3,000 PSI, it means pilot pressure of just greater than 750 PSI is required to overcome the working pressure and open the poppet (3000 \/ 4 = 750 – this assumes the pressure in the downstream port in the reverse flow direction is negligible, otherwise the effective pilot area is reduced).<\/p>\n

Pilot ratio is an inherent characteristic of pilot-operated check valves, over center counterbalance valves (externally piloted) and brake valves (internally and externally piloted). But it also finds application in other situations, including variable pump and motor controls.<\/p>\n

In the case of pilot-to-open check valves, it is important to consider the piston-to-annulus area ratio when applying these valves to the rod-side of a double-acting cylinder. For example, if the cylinder has a piston-to-annulus area ratio of 2:1, the piloted-operated check valve must have a pilot ratio of at least 3:1 (or higher if there is a negative load on the piston rod), otherwise it will not open. And you can watch a simulation video that explains this phenomenon, here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The term pilot ratio refers to the ratio of two, discrete areas of a piston, spool or poppet on which opposing pressures act. The pilot area, on which pilot-pressure acts, is always the larger of the two areas. Working or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,32,16,19],"class_list":["post-2976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all","tag-fluid-power","tag-hydraulic-cylinder","tag-hydraulics","tag-hydraulics-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2995,"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2976\/revisions\/2995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hydraulicsupermarket.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}