Inevitably, even with a well-run maintenance plan scheduling all the inspections and repair work, the performance of a mobile hydraulics rig will enter a state of decline. It’s almost as if the preventative care routines hit a wall, a turn of events that can’t be overturned, no matter how many repairs are performed. Forced to look deeper, the maintenance foreman catalogues all of the worst performance-inhibiting factors.
Understanding Multi-Surface Wear
Short of replacing a worn hydraulics part, the best course of action is to correct the aging effects that are distressing the system. Dual-surface wear is first up. Moving parts are coming into contact with one another. There’s a good chance the lubricant level isn’t sufficient, so there’s no oily film to prevent abrasion and frictional heat. What if the oil is there but it’s contaminated? This is three-part wear, a phenomenon that affects parts lubricity and clearance. Basically, there are foreign materials suspended in the oil, which are causing abrasion. Again, this particulate matter presses between the surfaces of the equipment’s moving parts.
Fatigue and Cavitation Wear Problems
As metal parts age and decay, tiny slivers break off and become travelling contaminants. These are the hard particulates that cause scuffing and scratching on the formerly polished surfaces of the moving components described above. Excessively imbalanced vacuum conditions come next. With a pump unbalanced, or with a filter clogged, air bubbles propagate. The bubbles collapse explosively and produce waves of metal fatiguing energies. Capable of undermining case hardened steel alloys, cavitation problems must be corrected as soon as they’re detected. Flow restriction origins should be tracked down as soon as the sounds and vibrations that imply a cavitation problem are identified.
Countering Erosive and Corrosive Fatigue
An orange slurry forms in the
tubes and hoses when hard particles mix with the hydraulic fluid. This sludge
attenuates the fluid flow and acts as an abrasive medium. With corrosion
problems, chemical reactions, including those created by system-penetrating
deposits of water, attack the steel framework.
At least one of these performance retardants will gain traction as the
equipment ages. Hydraulic systems are designed to last, but they’re not immune
to the flow of time. At any rate, there are still several courses of action to
implement before accepting the inevitable. Regular oil changes will extend the machinery’s
lifespan. With cavitation problems, the flow restriction conditions need to be
eliminated. For the parts cracking and hard particulate matter concerns, try
reducing system shock loads. If that action doesn’t work, a replacement
component should help, although this course of action could become
prohibitively expensive as more aged components require replacements, too.
Factory 89, 38-40 Popes Road
Keysborough, Victoria, 3173
Phone: (03) 9798-6511
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