Mobile vehicle owners can’t afford to throw money at their hydraulic equipment. No, there has to be a way to implement an energy efficiency strategy. What, you might ask, falls under the scope of this system consolidating program? How about sizing the components properly? It’s always nice to have extra actuator oomph in hand, but that supplementary fluid power will accumulate. Let’s stop this accumulated energy waste in its tracks.
Intelligently Sized Actuators
An engineer has oversized the system components. It’s a logical move that offsets pressure fluctuations and fluid losses, but it also wastes energy. Streamline the equipment by opting for smaller valves. But be careful, for undersized parts carry a whole other set of risks. The smaller valves do their job, but the air compressor is forced to work harder to actuate the feebler cylinders. The sweet spot is the performance margin that falls between the over and under-sized design approach. Smarter system designers spend extra time sizing hydraulic and pneumatic components just-so, for consummately sized parts produce significant energy savings.
Understanding Fluid Transportation Logistics
An extended pneumatic system employs an air compressor and numerous control actuators. The mobile equipment is long and ungainly. Still, it relies on a suitably augmented response time. When the operator hits a controller, the boom has to move instantly. Unfortunately, long hose runs and sharply curving tubes impact machine performance. Shorten those hoses, expand the tube radius and optimise the fluid conduits. Better yet, install an accumulator, a component that’s designed to store energy. The collected fluid power accumulates within this bulbous housing so that the required motive energy is instantly available.
Utilize Fluid Common Sense
Sized cylinders and shortened hoses are a good start. Reinforce that approach by using a little horse sense. Don’t ignore leaks. Over thirty percent of all fluid system losses are caused by easily remedied hose leaks, so gain an immediate performance increase by plugging these breaches. That’s the key to a solid plant maintenance program, the knowledge that a few basic checks can find and then repair the issue before it becomes a real energy glutton. After all, predictive planned maintenance programs exist to find smaller problems before they turn into major breakdown events. Employed properly, that program will consistently correct all niggling mechanical flaws before they become costly overhaul incidents.
In mobile hydraulics and pneumatics applications, a healthy bottom line can disappear very quickly. A half-dozen hoses are too long. The tubes curving around a vehicle chassis are too tight, their seals are disintegrating, or their connecting valves are sized incorrectly. Implement a sound energy efficiency strategy, one that utilizes a scheduled planned maintenance strategy to monitor and correct these system defects.
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