Hydraulics.

Components & Symbols

• hy·drau·lics/haɪˈdrɔlɪks, -ˈdrɒlɪks/
• the science that deals with the laws governing water or other liquids
in motion and their applications in engineering; practical or applied
hydrodynamics.
• Origin:
• 1665–75;
• Session 3
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• Unless otherwise stated, whenever the masculine gender is used, both
men and women are included.
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LOW PRESSURE OIL HIGH PRESSURE OIL

RETURN OIL DRAIN OIL AIR LINE

2 Air Vent
24 Drain line filter 15 Supply to
services
1 Header Tank
23 Return line filter 22 Return from services
3 Float switch
18 HP air
4 Suction Valves 20 Vent
5 Hand Pump 13 Accum.
6 Hydraulic Pumps Blow down 21 Piston
11 Relief Valves
14 Accumulator
19 Air
12 Accum. Isolating resevoir
7 Discharge Valves valve

8 P. G/G isolators 9 Pressure Gauges 16 Ganged

Valve
10 Pressure switches
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• 12. Accumulator Isolating Valve.
• What is this for?
• To isolate the accumulator from the hydraulic pressure circuit for maintenance.
• What type of valve do you think this will be?
• Probably a Ball Valve nowadays.

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• 13. Accumulator Blow – down valve.
• We will discuss the accumulator next, but the blow-down valve is simply to
connect the accumulator and pressure side of the system to the return or low-
pressure side of the system.

• This then allows for complete de-pressurisation of the system for ?

• Maintenance purposes.

• Shutting down of the system.

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• These blow down valves are normally High pressure Globe Type Valves.
• Symbol: Globe Valve

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• Blow – down of any pressurised system can be very dangerous.
• Hydraulic systems operate at very high pressures.
• There is a recognised Procedure for blow-down.

• 1. Shut down Hydraulic pumps.

• 2. Open accumulator blow-down valve slowly.
• 3. Check that hydraulic tank level rises (shows oil returning)
• 4. Air (or N2) pressure drops.
• 5. Check System pressure drops to zero.

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• 14. Accumulator.(Includes 20 & 21)

• Why do we fit an accumulator?

• An accumulator full-fills two functions.

• It absorbs any shock or pulsations in the system.

• It also stores energy, ensuring the pump is not running continuously.

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Symbol: Accumulator.
Gas Charged.
Non Separated.

Gas Charged.
Bladder or Piston Type

Spring Loaded Type

Weight Type
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• The best analogy is that an accumulator is like an electrical storage battery.

• A hydraulic accumulator stores potential power, in this case liquid under

• This work can include briefly operating cylinders and fluid motors, maintaining
the required system pressure during starts, stops and direction changes.

• Accumulator maintenance safety is extremely dangerous.

• You MUST follow the correct procedures as laid down by Manufacturers.

•
• http://www.fluidpowersafety.com/fpsi_alert-16.html

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• Charging / Operating Pressure Test on an Accumulator.
• Charging and testing bladder, piston and diaphragm accumulators
with nitrogen is usually carried out using a Charge / Test kit such as
the one shown here.

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• It usually contains everything required to check / charge accumulators.
• Valve body,
• Spindle with elastic seal,
• Check valve and release valve,
• Pressure gauge with display ranges up to 400 bar.
• Charging hose.

• Adapter for bladder accumulators .

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• Maintenance Considerations
• When charging the gas end of a bladder or diaphragm accumulator, the
nitrogen gas should always be admitted very slowly, always use a
regulator..

• If the high-pressure nitrogen is allowed to expand rapidly as it enters the

bladder, it can chill the bladder's polymeric material to the point where
immediate brittle failure occurs.

• Rapid pre-charging can also force the bladder underneath the poppet at
the oil-end, causing it to be cut.

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Typical Bladder type Accumulator
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• If pre-charge pressure is too high or minimum system pressure is reduced
without a corresponding reduction in pre-charge pressure, the operation of the
accumulator will be affected and damage may also result.

• Excessive pre-charge of a bladder accumulator can drive the bladder into the
poppet assembly during discharge, causing damage to the poppet assembly
and/or the bladder.

• This is a common cause of bladder failure.

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No, not this kind of bladder failure!

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• Low or no pre-charge also can have drastic consequences for bladder
accumulators.

• It can result in the bladder being crushed into the top of the shell by
system pressure.

• This can cause the bladder to extrude into or

be punctured by the gas valve.

• In this scenario, only one such cycle is required

to destroy the bladder.

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• Similarly, excessively high or low pre-charge of a piston
accumulator can cause the piston to bottom out at the end of
its stroke, resulting in damage to the piston and its seal.

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• Piston type usually have a micro switch fitted so that if this happens, an audible
warning will result.

• Even though piston accumulators can be damaged by improper charging, they are
much more tolerant of it than bladder accumulators.

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• 15. Supply to services.
• You will be looking at some different services in a future Session, with the view to
explaining the purpose of the system, and what each individual component does.

• You will also build the systems in the workshop.

• Bet you just can’t wait !!

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• 16. Ganged V.alve for (17) System Cross Over.

• These allow Service and Emergency X - over to one or more Systems.

• They can be manually, or electrically controlled via solenoids.

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• If a drop in pressure is sensed in a particular system, these valves can open to
provide hydraulic power to that system.

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• 18. High Pressure air supply to Accumulator Isolation Valve.
• The Accumulator can be either Compressed Air, or Nitrogen charged.

• The trend nowadays is towards nitrogen charged accumulators.

• Why do you think that is?

• Air (oxygen ) and oil can form an explosive mixture under pressure.

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LOW PRESSURE OIL HIGH PRESSURE OIL

RETURN OIL DRAIN OIL AIR LINE

2 Air Vent
24 Drain line filter 15 Supply to
services
1 Header Tank
23 Return line filter 22 Return from services
3 Float switch
18 HP air
4 Suction Valves 20 Vent
5 Hand Pump 13 Accum.
6 Hydraulic Pumps Blow down 21 Piston
11 Relief Valves
14 Accumulator
19 Air
12 Accum. Isolating resevoir
7 Discharge Valves valve

8 P. G/G isolators 9 Pressure Gauges 16 Ganged

Valve
10 Pressure switches
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• In the drawing, the Air reservoir (19) is supplying compressed air to the
accumulator, via a shut off valve.

• There is also a X – Over valve at (18) from a High Pressure air main to charge
the air reservoir, or provide air directly to the accumulator if required.

• The accumulator has a vent valve at (20) for maintenance.

• If it was N2 the system would be very similar, but probably the supply at ( 18
) would be replaced with a detachable connection to a bank of N2 Bottles.

• Accumulator operation.
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• The accumulator in the drawing is a Piston Type.
• A piston is used to separate the hydraulic fluid and the gas (in this case,
air).
• The piston is sealed by Hallprene seals.
• These 2 seals are lubricated by the hydraulic medium.
• The bottom one is in contact with the hydraulic fluid and therefore
requires no further attention, the top one on the other hand must be
lubricated by allowing a film of oil on top of
the piston.
• This is done when the accumulator is blown
down.

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• The accumulator should be blown down weekly to check the air
pressure.

• If the air pressure is too low, check for air leakage.

• Care should be exercised when blowing down the accumulator to

make sure that it is done very slowly to avoid damage to the
piston.

• An air or N2 reservoir is used with the accumulator to give the

accumulator a greater reserve of air to avoid short cycling of the
pump.
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• In the event of an emergency, a hand pump can be used to charge the
accumulator to give a pressurised flow to the system.

• The air charge is first vented off and readmitted after the pumping
operation.

• The reducing valve is then adjusted to give the correct working air
pressure on top of the piston.

• The PTFE anti-tilt rings are fitted to prevent the piston tilting, thus
preventing damage to the cylinder walls.

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• In this application the accumulator is used to enable the pump to be switched off
and yet hold on the pressure.
• You will see that the faulty accumulator quickly drops the pressure and
start/stops the electric motor.
• When replaced and charged the system pressure holds for a much longer period.
• Charging Accumulator

Replacing & Charging an accumulator

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•19 Accumulator Air or N2 reservoir
•20 Accumulator Relief V/V
•21 Accumulator Piston
•22 Return from Services
•23 Return line Filter
•24 Drain line & Filter

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• 22. Return from Services

• This is piped in to the Tank and generally is fitted with a return

filter bank ( 23 )

• This filter ensures any contamination of the oil is limited.

• Filter Types

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• Filters
• Return flow filter
• An oil filter situated in the return line to the tank has the
advantage that the filter is thus easy to maintain.
• A disadvantage, however, is that
contamination is removed from the hydraulic
fluid only after it has passed through the
hydraulic components.
• This configuration is often used.

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• Pump Inlet Filter
• With this configuration, the pump is protected from contamination.
• The filter is, on the other hand, less easily accessible.
• If these filters have a too fine a mesh, suction problems and cavitation effects
may occur.
• Additional coarse filters upstream of the pump are recommended.

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• Pressure line filters.
• Pressure filters can be installed selectively upstream of valves which are sensitive
to contamination; this also enables smaller mesh sizes to be used.

• A pressure-resistant housing is required, which makes this configuration more

expensive.

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 Filter With By-Pass
The filter shown
here has an Filter Symbol
automatic by-pass
in case of clogging.
If the filter clogs
up the spring
loaded valve will
open with the back
pressure.
These type usually
have some sort of
indicator to tell it
needs cleaning.
Filter with by-
pass symbol

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• If a filter is not changed when clogged, it is better to allow unfiltered oil through
the system than to run with it clogged.
• In this emergency situation, the oil automatically by-passes the filter element.
• This may be done with a simple spring loaded valve which is opened by the back
pressure.
• In the diagram of the full flow filter above, the filter element moves against the
spring as back pressure builds up and uncovers a bypass hole in the central stem.
• The symbol below shows a filter with bypass and indicator.

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• 24. Drain line & Filter

• Allows a percentage of oil to flow from the hydraulic components to ensure they
are cooled and lubricated as required.

• The filter here does the same job as the return line filter.

• http://www.machinerylubrication.com/View/30348/oil-filters-tell

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• Oil sampling & analysis.

• In hydraulic systems, the analysis of oil samples should be done

on a routine basis.

• High levels of aluminium can indicate a potential pump or

converter failure.

• High chromium levels can reveal scored hydraulic cylinder rods

or gear and bearing wear.

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• The cleanliness of hydraulic oil systems is extremely important because of
the very close tolerances that exist in the pumps, control valves and
between the pistons and hydraulic cylinder walls.

• 75% of hydraulic system failures are caused by contamination through

dust, dirt and condensation moisture.

• Therefore, oil analysis should be performed on a regular basis to monitor

contamination levels.

• Oil analysis can also be used effectively to determine the proper oil drain
and filter change intervals.

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• Quick analysis can be by an on – site type kit, but a full laboratory analysis is
ultimately the only proper test.

•
• ALWAYS WEAR PPE !

•Typical Oil Analysis Method Charnley 2019 41

• Systems.
• We looked previously at a supply system for a hydraulic ring main.

• What kind of Systems can be fed from here?

• 1) Basic Constant Pressure System.

• 2) Basic Variable Delivery System.

• 3) Boosted Variable Delivery System.

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 Basic Constant Pressure System.

Using accumulated knowledge from past

Sessions, and self study of ISO symbols,
can you name the various parts of this Charnley 2019 43
system? Which way is flow?
• With this System we have:-
• 1. Tank
• A) This holds a reserve of system fluid

• B) Provides positive suction to the pump.

• C) Assists in de-aeration and cooling of the fluid.

• 2) Suction filter.

• 3) Pump. Constant pressure positive displacement type, which provides motive

force to the system fluid.

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• 4) Relief valve. This lifts in the event of blockage on the discharge side of
the system, or no flow position on the control valve. Oil is relieved to the
return line, and so back to the tank.
• 5) Directional Control Valve. We will discuss this further, but basically it
directs fluid to either side of the actuator to control direction.
• 6) Actuator (Bi-Directional Motor). This converts hydraulic energy into
mechanical work.
• Oil returns via the directional control valve to:-
• 7) Cooler. This cools the fluid and can be air fan type, or fluid heat
exchanger, and finaly to the tank via the:-
• 8) Return line filter.

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• The Directional Control Valve is manually operated in this case.

• Symbol.

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• The valve shown here is a Four Way Valve.
• Four-way, directional-control valves are used to control the direction of fluid flow
in a hydraulic circuit, which controls the direction of movement of a work cylinder
or the rotation of a fluid motor.
• These valves are usually the sliding-spool type.
• A typical four-way, directional-control valve has four ports:
• One pressure port is connected to a pressure line.
• One return or exhaust port is connected to a reservoir.
• Two working ports are connected by lines to an actuating unit.

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• Four-way valves consist of a rectangular cast body, a sliding spool, and a way to position a spool.
• A spool is precision-fitted to a bore through the longitudinal axis of a valve's body.

• The lands of a spool divide this bore into a series of separate chambers.
• Ports in a valve's body lead into a chamber so that a spool's position determines which ports are open to each
other and which ones are sealed off from each other.
• Ports that are sealed off from each other in one position may be interconnected in another position.
• Spool positioning is accomplished manually, mechanically, electrically, or hydraulically or by combining any of the
four.

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 How does this operate?

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• The spool position determines the possible flow conditions in the circuit.
• The four ports are marked P, T, A, and B: P is connected to the flow source; T to the tank; and
A and B to the respective ports of the work cylinder, hydraulic motor, or some other valve in
the circuit.

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• In diagram A, the spool is in such a position that port P is open to port A, and port B is open to
port T. Ports A and B are connected to the ports of the cylinder / motor, flow through port P,
and cause the piston of the cylinder / motor to move to the right.
• Return flow from the cylinder passes through ports B and T

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• In diagram B, port P is open to port B, and the piston moves
to the left.
• Return flow from the cylinder / motor passes through ports
A and T.

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2/2 Way Directional Control Valve (D.C.V.)

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3/2 Way Directional Control Valve (D.C.V.)

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4/2 Way Directional Control Valve (D.C.V.)

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• Rotary Valve.

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• Although most direction control valves are of sliding spool type design, other
types are also used.
• One such design is the rotary four-way valve, which consists of a rotor closely
fitted in the valve body.

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•

• P = Pump pressure port.

• R = Return to tank.
• A = System feed (fwd.).
• B = System feed (reverse).

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• The rotary spool directional control valve has a round core with one or more passages or
recesses in it.
• The core is mounted within a stationary sleeve.
• As the core is rotated within the stationary sleeve, the passages or recesses connect or block
the ports in the sleeve.
• The ports in the sleeve are connected to the appropriate lines of the fluid system.

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 Piston = A x 2

Constant Pressure Rotary

supply. Valve Swash
Neutral Plate

Piston = A

Constant Pressure supply.

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 Piston = A x 2

Constant Pressure
supply.

Direction b

Tilt b
Piston = A

Constant Pressure supply.

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 Piston = A x 2

Constant Pressure supply.

RSV

Drain

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 Piston = A x 2
Tilt a

Direction a

Constant Pressure supply.

Drain

Piston = A

Constant Pressure supply.

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• Oil Coolers
• These can be either air cooled type.

• Or shell and tube type.

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 Header Tank

Relief Valve
Relief Valve

Non- Return Non-Return

Valve Valve

Variable
Delivery Pump

Basic Variable
Bi-directional
Motor
Delivery System.
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• Basic Variable Delivery System.
• This system consists of:-
• A) Variable delivery pump. Radial or axial pumps are used which give a variable flow
in either direction by means of a swash plate, the pump is connected in a closed
circuit with the actuator.

• B) Actuator. This is a bi-directional motor and converts hydraulic energy into

mechanical work. It can also be linear.

• C) Make-up non-return valves. These open when LP leg pressure falls due to any
leakage. Fluid from the Header Tank replenishes the system.

• D) Relief valves protect the system from over-pressurisation.

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• Advantages:-
• 1) Good speed and directional control.
• 2) Control of system easily obtained.

• Disadvantages:-
• 1) Poor filtration due to back flushing.
• 2) Poor cooling due to insufficient fluid flow.

• BED SHEETS

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By combining a constant pressure system, and a basic variable delivery
system, then, in theory, we should have the best of both worlds.
You have a drawing of such a system called a Boosted Variable Delivery
System.
For next Session, I am looking for:-
A) An explanation of the operation of this system and it’s component
parts. e.g. 1.
Return
Tank. This holds a reservoir of hydraulic oil. It helps with dissipation of to
heat and any bubbles of gas formed. It also separates water and any tank.
solids in the system.
B) State the Advantages of this type of system.
C) Suggest uses for this type of system.
Warning!!
I will be asking questions.

Boosted Variable Delivery

System

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“ALL KNOWLEDGE IS CONNECTED TO ALL OTHER KNOWLEDGE.
THE FUN IS IN MAKING THE CONNECTIONS”.
Arthur Aufderheide
Any Questions?

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