InsaneHydraulics - Sergiy Sydorenko © 2009-2011 All Ridghts Reserved
Today's conversation with a client (concerning some hydraulic hose
issues) made me remember a curious episode that I witnessed years
ago. Back then I was employed at a hydraulic company which, among other
brands, represented Aeroquip - an Eaton's name for quality hose and
fittings. In Portugal Aeroquip occupies small part of the market
due to high price, but stays in demand due to the above average quality.
The hydraulic hose market was (and still is) an endless battle between a
thousand and one brands fighting for a "place under the sun", and most
Portuguese clients would go for the price, however some applications,
demanding certain amount of hose and fitting quality, turned many heads
into our direction, so we were receiving quite a number of hose orders
every day.
Most of the times, when a client wants a new
hydraulic hose, he shows up on your doorstep with
what-s-left-from-the-old-one in hand for you to make a new one in
accordance to the oil dripping sample. That particular client brought
over a small 1/4 inch R2 hose. The hose and the fittings were Aeroquip,
and the client was complaining about oil leaking from under the sleeves.
As usual, I separated the necessary R2 fittings, and was about to start
the hose assembly when it struck me that so far I hadn't seen an
apparently new 1/4 inch hose present this type of failure. I asked the
client, who was waiting at the counter, what the usual working pressure
of the hose was.
Oh, it is very low - he said - the recommended value
is around 100 bars, on occasion we go as high as 110-120, but never more
than that. It was not what I heard, but rather what I SAW, that caught
my attention - as the man was talking about pressures, he made a gesture
as if he was moving a hand pump lever. I wondered if they were using a
hand operated pump. The man said "oh yes, a small hand pump, yes" and
pointed towards his truck. So I asked him if he could show me the pump,
and also asked how did they measure the above mentioned 100 bars. "it's
easy, the pump has a pressure gauge mounted on it, let me show you..." -
said the man and went for the truck to get the pump.
When he laid the pump on the counter I got even more
convinced that something was not adding up... The pump was apparently of
a very high quality, with a long lever and a ve-e-ery small piston.
Everything about it was screaming "extremely high pressure". When I
turned it to see the pressure gauge... I saw a gauge that had a 140 MPa
scale, with a permanent marker line on the glass, marking roughly 110
MPa. See? - said the man - We normally don't even go over the line! But them damned hoses just don't seem to hold it...
No need to say that the man was genuinely surprised
to know that 1 Mpa meant 10 bars, and that their normal working pressure
was exceeding 1000 bars. Applying special high pressure hoses solved
the leakage problem for good.
I know, of course, that YOU know it, but I am still
going to provide a small literacy training session to see if I remember
it right...
Ok, so in SI (the International System of Units or metric
system) the pressure is measured in pascals or Pa, one pascal is one
newton over one square meter, and is a very low pressure. One Bar is not
a SI unit, but, strangely, equals exactly 100 000 pascals. It has
nothing to do with beer bars or golden bars.
Then we have a one kilogram-force over 1 square
centimeter, which is a technical atmosphere (at). The one pressure unit
that makes sense, as everybody can picture one kilogram and one square
centimeter. A kgf is also not a SI unit, and equals the force one
kilogram of mass produces in standard gravity, which would be 9.8
Newtons, so one technical atmosphere is 0.98 bars. (I skipped a bunch of
decimals and am aware of it)
Then, to make it more complicated, the scientists invented
atmosphere (atm), which equals exactly 101325 Pa, the atmosphere
pressure at sea level - so 1atm equals 1.01 bars.
From the practical hydraulics point of view there is no
difference between 1, 1.01 and 0.98, so it is traditionally common to
call bars kilograms or atmospheres.
Oh yeah, there's also psi or Pound Per Square Inch, which
is the product of the avoirdupois system (based on pound mass, used in the US,
UK, Canada and colonies). 1 bar equals 14.5 psi. As I am from Europe, I
have to make an effort to deal with psi and prefer good old bars.
As I was writing about the psi, I remembered a friend of
mine, who once received an order for 10000 bar scale pressure gauges.
Naturally, he thought the client confused bar with psi, and supplied
gauges with a 700 bar scale. It turned out the gauges were to work in a
high pressure water cutting tool which, indeed, worked with pressures
rating several thousand bar... boy was his face red!
The main point here is it's always important to pay
attention not only to what people say, but also to what people gesture,
and, of course, it never hurts to learn basic theory before messing
around with oil-hydraulics.
