Insane Hydraulics
Bold and audacious blog about fluid power
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31 January, 2021
This week is about safety and industrial tales. One Dangerous Trait of Diesel Engine Driven Hydraulic Systems and an add-on called A Hydraulic System That Would Not Stop.
24 January, 2021
Completing the picture with 14 Bad Things About Being a Hydraulic Technician.
17 January, 2021
17 Good Things About Being a Hydraulic Technician.
10 January, 2021
You wouldn't believe if I told you how many times I am asked to repair perfectly functional components, which is why I believe it is necessary to (once again!) address the very important matter of Broken Hydraulic Pumps That Don't Need to Be Fixed.
3 January, 2021
I continue with the topic of clean oil and show you one of the ways to tackle a "proper oil change", using one of my recent service calls as an example. I strongly believe that sharing experiences is important, especially in this field - we all want to get better at what we do, right? So - kicking the 2021 off with Ten Steps to Changing Hydraulic Oil.
27 December, 2020
The next two weeks will be all about keeping hydraulic systems clean during service and re-commissioning (very important)! I am finishing the old year with an old post about A Way You Can Flush a Closed-Loop Circuit and will start a new year with a new article, in which I will showcase an oil change I did a couple of weeks ago (yes, you heard me right, even a simple oil change can deserve a blog post if done right).
21 December, 2020
Today's article turned out to be quite long. And full of technical details, as I go along disassembling a White Hydraulics orbital motor. The main point of this article, however, is not the technical features of this model, but a bigger picture that stands behind the way a technician can approach a service task. I warn you - the article has a sad ending... I also just discovered that Google started to place ads in places that ruin the design of the site, so if you see no text - scroll the page down - it was "pushed" down. I'll fix this ASAP. So, a lot of pictures and words in - Back-Engineering for the Sake of Learning Industrial Hydraulics.
13 December, 2020
I have been working on a post dedicated to reverse-engineering and how practicing it makes you a better hydraulic tech. A walk-through example of how I like to work on hydraulic components that are new to me, presented with the help of a White Drive orbital motor. I won't be able to upload it today - it's "not ripe yet", but I can give an example of how the ability to back-engineer unknown hydraulic components saved my day a couple of years ago. Consider this article a prequel to the one that will come out next week - The Furukawa Battle.
6 December, 2020
I spent my previous weekend cleaning tanks and replacing filters and hoses at an underground rock-breaking plant, and this weekend inside a 4000-liter tank of a backfill plant HPU preparing it for a "proper" start-up after an oil change. I may even devote a blog post to this "exhilarating experience" (after I sleep for a couple of days straight). I did get the oil to NAS 3, so my dreams will be about fluffy clouds and unicorns... Anyhow - today I want to go back to an old troubleshooting case, which, nonetheless, carries a valid point - Hydraulic System Too Slow - Low Efficiency or Load Sensing at Work?
29 November, 2020
I have been coming across an opinion that cageless bearings are so robust, that replacing them is a waste of money. In this post, I show an example of how a hydrostatic transmission ended up after getting a complete overhaul, in which the only part that was not replaced was such An Eternal Bearing. Draw your own conclusions...
22 November, 2020
I am returning to the gear pump topic and use a Parker PGP365 I overhauled last week to showcase some Things That Can Go Wrong When You Assemble A Gear Pump.
15 November, 2020
This story is old, full of outdated references, and not directly related to oil hydraulics, but its educational value is timeless nonetheless. I lost a troubleshooting battle and even paid for the education with my own money. Completely re-edited - Air Bubbles and Independent Troubleshooting.
08 November, 2020
A New Way to Steer with a Danfoss PVG32 Valve, (including another example of "industrial DIY").
01 November, 2020
Haloween is upon us. Time to scare and get scared. Whenever I think about scares, I recall the day when a hydraulic malfunction of a machine I was commissioning almost sank a fishing boat... It all ended well, though, and today I am paying homage to that day, and present to you the "latest edition" of the post that explains the causes of a malfunction, that caused a multi-section gear pump to spit out its housing seals, and touches on a couple of gear-pump-related myths. Happy Haloween everybody!
25 October, 2020
About "Left" and "Right" Adjustments
18 October, 2020
As promised, I report my first impressions of My Newest Secret Weapon Against Hydraulic Malfunctions.
11 October, 2020
We finally finished moving in! Thank God! As it turned out, there isn't even a telephone cable in our village, so I had to wait for an alternative internet solution to be installed. I am all connected now, and the PC is in one piece, so I can finally blog again. Two days ago I received my new "secret weapon" that I will use in diagnostics of hydraulic malfunctions, and I already had the chance to use it in the field. And even though it's not perfect by any means, I am genuinely surprised at what it can do! I really wanted to write about it today - but I won't, because most likely my post will be a hasty mess, so I am postponing it till next week. And for now - I just want to remind you that you can Use The Displacement Limiters in Bent-Axis Hydraulic Motors as a Diagnostic Tool.
26 September, 2020
Me and the Missus are moving... again... and this time it is a true "leap of faith", because we decided to move to an even more remote location. I am not sure if I'll have internet connection during the next week, so I am publishing this week's post slightly "ahead of schedule" - Recalling The Baldest Pump Repair I've Ever Seen
20 September, 2020
Did you know that there are Shaft Seals That Can Break Your Pump?
13 September, 2020
The Houdini Pump
6 September, 2020
LS Line Flow - Another Way to Get in Trouble
30 August, 2020
Troubleshooting Low Flow in Classic Closed-Center Load-Sensing Hydraulic Systems
23 August, 2020
Another example of preventive maintenance at its best - A Parker P1-100 Pump After 14,000 Hours of Operation.
16 August, 2020
Recalling the time when An Old Grader Gave Lessons in Hydraulic Troubleshooting.
09 August, 2020
Trying to make an "imposible marriage" by Combining a Danfoss PVG32 and a Kawasaki K3V63DT into an NFC Hydraulic System