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Whenever you are putting together a hydraulic system design, the idea is to make the entire system perform as efficiently as possible. The first step, therefore, should be to select the correct motor, followed by the pump. Hydraulic motors are similar in design to many hydraulic pumps, but whereas a pump only takes a rotary action to move hydraulic fluid away from a unit, the motor will actually take that flow into itself and then expel a rotary action.
Each type of motor has its own performance profile, so you should know the requirement of your application performance before you make your selection. Here is a quick overview of a few of the most common types of hydraulic motors you can get from a hydraulic service in Minnesota:
- Gear motors: Gear motors are available in two different subcategories: orbital and external spur. Orbital motor styles, unlike external spur gears, have a matched gear set that is protected inside of a housing. When hydraulic fluid comes into the motor, the gears rotate. One of those gears is directly connected to the motor output shaft, which causes the motor to rotate. Some of the key features of these types of motors include their low weight and size, their relatively low cost, their wide range of speeds and temperatures, their simple design and their medium pressures.
- Vane motors: In a vane motor, hydraulic fluid comes into the motor and is then applied to a rectangle-shaped vane, which slides in and out of the rotor in the center of the motor. The center rotor is then connected to the main output shaft. The fluid that comes into the vane causes that output shaft to rotate. Key features and benefits of vane motors include low noise level, high torque even at low speeds, medium pressure, tremendous versatility, ability to be installed vertically, low flow pulsation and a simple design. They tend to be most frequently used in industrial and mobile applications.
- Piston motors: In a piston motor, hydraulic fluid enters the motor and is then applied to a number of pistons throughout a cylinder barrel. Those pistons are then pressed against a swash plate, which is set at an angle inside the machine. As the pistons push against the angle, the swash plate rotates. That plate is also connected to the motor’s output shaft. Some of the most important benefits of piston motors include an ability to reach higher speeds, greater efficiency, fixed and variable displacement, ability to control displacement, a wide range of speeds and high power density.
- Radial piston motors: Radial piston motors are a subcategory of piston motors, designed with the pistons set perpendicular to the output shaft. This specific type of motor is able to produce higher torques at lower speeds than standard piston motors. Excavators, cranes, winches and other ground drilling machinery often use these types of motors.
For more information about how to choose the right type of motor, talk to a representative from a hydraulic service in Minnesota. The experts at M & M Hydraulic Company look forward to hearing from you soon!
After spending years addressing hydraulic components in Minnesota for area businesses, M & M Hydraulic Company still discovers that contamination is the primary culprit for problems with these devices. Sometimes it is a matter of workplaces being organized enough to address equipment maintenance, and other times, it is a lack of awareness of how contamination is affecting tools and equipment. If you do not have a contamination control policy, now is the time to design one. Here are seven advantages you will enjoy from this effort:
- Better productivity: Controlling contamination in hydraulic equipment maintains their efficiency and reliability. It is also vital for assuring these machines run at all. System failures result in downtime, which means no production and earning. That is why performing this vital maintenance improves your bottom line.
- Fewer repair bills: Approximately 80 percent of system failures happen due to contamination and poor filtration, which shows the seriousness of this problem. If you can control contamination, it will affect the frequency of repairs. Since travel, labor and parts all add up for each call, avoiding them automatically saves you money.
- Equipment lasts long term: Capital investment becomes expensive, and this is especially true with manufacturing. The best way to preserve heavy equipment and avoid replacement costs is to maintain it. With hydraulic items, this includes controlling contamination. That is the issue most likely to bring down your valuable capital, so make addressing it a priority.
- Increase revenue: Less downtime means completing more projects. That increases revenue to your business. Also, missing deadlines due to breakdowns will turn customers away from you, which similarly does few favors for your profit margins. Taking time to monitor contamination is an investment, but it is one that will pay for itself. Being able to keep your promises goes far in this world, so take steps to assure that happens with each customer.
- Better employee morale: You have earnings goals, and employees want to earn wages. Equipment failure makes both needs impossible. Even if employees are paid as they wait for vital equipment to work again, the big rush to finish projects and meet deadlines after repairs is not fun for anyone. No one wants a work environment where they have no time to complete their jobs and the pressure is immense. By maintaining your equipment, you help employees finish work on time and feel better about coming to the shop every day.
- Improved efficiency: When you become familiar with the best settings for controlling contamination, you will operate your equipment more efficiently. This enhances work speed and helps manage hydraulic fluid better for improved performance.
- Discover shortcomings before they become failures: The best aspect of a contamination control policy is awareness. You will usually detect problems before they cause a failure, and that allows you to take a problem solving approach rather than a reactive one rooted in fear, stress and hoping repairs are completed on time. If you notice patterns where there is more contamination than usual or find that filters consistently fail, you can address those problems and assure continued operation.
For help with hydraulic components in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, contact M & M Hydraulic Company.
M & M Hydraulic Company offers hydraulic maintenance in Minnesota and throughout the region, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin. When we attend to a repair or maintenance issue, we discover that most failures are related to system contamination. That is why monitoring and filtration is important for all your hydraulic equipment. Here are best practices for controlling contamination and improving productivity:
- Design filtration for the most sensitive component: Many shops contain centralized filtration and often do not take in account the needs of all the equipment. Basically, some items are more sensitive than others. A micron rating that works for one piece of equipment can cause another to fail. For example, if you have a servo valve in your device, that requires filtration with a lower micron rating. Proportional valves and piston motors tolerate more. To assure preservation, set tolerances to the standards of the most sensitive equipment. That way, everything works, and the worst thing that will happen is that you will keep less sensitive equipment cleaner.
- Know components and cycle requirements: A drop in pressure affects components differently. When this occurs, you need to know which parts are affected and how to cycle them from that. Sometimes, this overwhelms filters, which increases the chances of contamination. Know filter location, pressure lines and how to protect each component. This requires better knowledge of your equipment, but the effort will pay off in the long term with lower repair costs.
- Watch your filters: There are few components more important in contamination control than your filters. Rather than wait for signs of a problem, keep your filters clean as a matter of routine. This will reduce the number of factors that could go wrong and make maintenance much easier.
- Have a monitoring system: Even if you set a cleanliness level, your work is not finished. The system needs to be monitored to ensure contamination remains under control and settings do not change. You need devices that monitor cleanliness, and you should check on them periodically. These items will alert you when contamination is high and your filters can no longer wait. Even if the micron rating is only just below limits, that still indicates problems that need to be addressed. Watching the cleanliness level often means you can detect problems before they become more serious. It is easier to replace or clean filters than to call in a professional every time something goes amiss with your filtration system.
- Address problems immediately: Contamination is not a problem to leave lingering. Address it when you notice higher levels or your monitoring system indicates something is wrong. Allowing debris to build up in your filters will eventually affect the efficiency and functioning of your equipment. The last thing you need is to be working on a project close to deadline, only to have your tools stop working. The best maintenance for your equipment involves being aware.
For assistance in hydraulic maintenance in Minnesota and beyond, including making your filtration processes more efficient, contact M & M Hydraulic Company today.
Pneumatic systems are quickly becoming one of the most popular choices for engineers who need a lot of force to operate a machine. Pneumatic systems are quieter, cleaner and more reliable than their hydraulic counterparts. While there’s no debating that these systems can be great for professionals, they can break down from time to time and require pneumatic repair in Minnesota. Here are a few causes of pneumatic system failures.
The system is operating over component limits
If you’re trying to force any machine to do too much, it’s most likely going to break or quit on you. Pneumatic cylinders are no different. Each one has its own limit, and once you try to force it to do more than it’s capable of accomplishing, it’s bound to shut down. If the cylinder goes over its load capacity, the seals are subjected to higher stress and friction rates than the manufacturer intended. If this overload continues, you’re going to need pneumatic repair in Minnesota to fix the seals in your cylinder. Rods and other components can also break down and require expensive repair. Heed the manufacturers’ warning and operate your system at a safe level!
There is insufficient lubrication
If your cylinder seals are under-lubricated, there is bound to be too much friction for the system to handle, and it could end up breaking down. The cylinders should stay properly lubricated at all times to avoid malfunction. Checking to make sure everything is lubricated properly before running your machine is a good habit to get into, and one that should help avoid unnecessary repairs. While you’re checking the cylinder’s lubrication, make sure everything is sealed so the lubricant won’t start leaking out all of a sudden.
The system is contaminated
All of the machines in your shop should be kept as clean as possible at all times. This is especially true for all of your pneumatic equipment that is vulnerable to breakdowns if it gets dirty. Sometimes, however, contaminants can seem unavoidable. Dirt and grime is easy to take care of, but an excess amount of water vapor is hard to control. Here are some signs of system contamination:
- Solids: We understand that shops get dirty, but that doesn’t excuse you from keeping an untidy pneumatic system. Once a piece of dirt or other debris gets into the system, it can wreak havoc on all parts of the machine. Make sure you thoroughly clean your system on a regular basis.
- Water buildup: All compressed air machines have water vapor, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay. Water can clog up crucial areas of the system, damage the rods, and make the lubricant less effective.
- Oil issues: If oil from lubricants gets into the pneumatic cylinder, you could have a major problem on your hands. Check to make sure there aren’t any leaks, and consider buying cylinders that are more resistant to oils.
If you are experiencing trouble with any of your pneumatic systems, call M & M Hydraulic Company today for pneumatic repair in Minnesota. From big pneumatic cylinders to small ones, we fix them all!
Whenever you need hydraulic systems repaired, it’s important that you work with a team of experts to get the job done. Even if you have a bit of experience in working with the systems yourself, it’s always safest to place your equipment in the hands of true experts who work on these types of systems every single day.
Of course, actually choosing which hydraulic repair service in Minnesota you will use can be difficult. There are many different services to choose from, so you have to determine which one is the best for your needs. Here are a few tips to help you accomplish this:
- Begin your search: Find a repair service by searching online and by asking friends or colleagues if they have any recommendations. When looking online, make sure you take some time to browse through reviews on sites like Google Reviews, Yelp, Angie’s List and more. These reviews will give you some important insight into the type of quality you can expect out of your repairs. The recommendations from friends and colleagues can be particularly helpful, as no one will recommend a company to someone they know if they believe the service will be bad.
- Perform a “background check”: Do as much research into each potential repair service as you can, looking for certifications, years of experience in the area, specific areas of expertise, services provided and more. Beyond finding a company that’s positively reviewed, you will also want to make sure you are choosing a company that has significant relevant experience in the type of job you will be asking them to perform.
- Reach out to the companies: If you have specific questions about the services these companies provide, don’t be afraid to give them a call, or even visit the facility. Either choice gives you a chance to talk to an actual representative of the company, which will give you an idea as to how communicative the company will be with you if you go with their services, and what level of customer service in general you can expect out of the company. If the representative is unhelpful or unfriendly, you can definitely consider this to be a warning sign.
- Consider cost: While cost should not be the sole determining factor in your decision of which repair service to go for, it’s certainly something you should take into consideration. After all, if you have a specific budget you cannot exceed for repair services, that’s something you absolutely need to keep in mind. But you should never go with a company only because they give you the lowest quote. It can act as a tiebreaker, or be a factor in your overall decision, but it’s usually a bad metric to use by itself.
For more information about how to choose a hydraulic repair service in Minnesota, we encourage you to reach out to us at M & M Hydraulic Company today. Our team looks forward to answering any questions you have about the services we provide.
Every vehicle engine relies on a wide range of working parts to make sure it functions properly and efficiently. If one of these parts begins to wear down, the engine itself will be at risk of malfunctioning. Hydraulic oil pumps are often taken for granted, but they need to receive proper maintenance and care like every other part of the system. A lack of maintenance will make it likely that you need to call for hydraulic repair in Minnesota to replace the pump entirely.
Here are a few of the biggest signs you might need to replace your pump:
- Bad noises: Any loud or unusual noises are never exactly good signs, especially if they’re clanking or scraping sounds. Resolving the noise could be as simple as lubricating the engine to prevent friction from parts that are rubbing together. However, the part could also have come loose or somehow broken apart.
- Low pressure: Oil pumps often are responsible for creating pressure, which helps oil to circulate throughout the whole engine. If you are experiencing low oil pressure, it is typically caused by a defective or malfunctioning pump. A good way to determine whether you have low oil pressure is to check your engine temperature. The higher the engine temperature, the more likely it is that there is insufficient oil pressure, which leads to a buildup of friction within the engine. There are other circumstances that could cause low oil pressure, but the pump should be the first element of the system that you check.
- Age: Simply put, the older an engine and its parts, the more likely they are to fail. If your pumps have been working hard for years and years and you have noticed them starting to fail more often, it’s probably best for you to just replace the part rather than continuing to repair it over and over again.
- Leaks: As you use your pumps regularly over time, it is possible that certain components will begin to wear down, which allows for fluid to leak through them. Depending on the kind of pump you’re using, you could experience either internal or external leaks. You’ll need to use a flow meter to determine how much oil is leaking through the system. This will also allow you to check fluid for contaminants as they leak out. If you notice the leakage is greater than the limit specified by the factory or have seen a significant decrease in the speed of the actuator, it is likely time for you to replace the pump entirely.
Whenever you are experiencing problems with any type of hydraulic equipment, including hydraulic pumps, it is important that you work with a skilled hydraulic repair service in Minnesota to get the issue resolved as quickly and as cost-efficiently as possible. For more information about the services we provide, contact the team at M & M Hydraulic Company today and we will be happy to answer your questions. We look forward to assisting you!
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