Keeping Your Hydraulic System
Free of Contamination
Cleanliness of the hydraulic oil plays crucial role in proper operation of all components of the hydraulic system. There are many contaminants that might effect your hydraulic oil. Some of them include metal, water, old seal material and varnish. It is important to prevent all contamination. Failing to do so can lead to more serious issues such as pump failures or sluggishness of moving components.
Here are a few components of your hydraulic system that can create contamination:
Seals and O-rings
Having bad seals not only results in oil leaks and contamination, but can also lead to some more serious problems, such as premature failure of mechanical components. A good example of that is cylinder piston seal. If the piston seal fails, the piston head will start dragging against the inside surface of the wall of the cylinder. This can cause permanent damage to the cylinder, producing metal contamination and putting extra wear on the pump if the hydraulic system is closed loop. If there is a loss of pressure through bad seals, pump will be working harder to compensate for the pressure loss, causing premature failure.It is important to replace o-rings so your hydraulic system does not get contaminated with old o-ring material. In some cases, broken o-rings and seals can get caught up in valves causing sluggish movement. In other cases they can completely block the movement of hydraulic system components.Pumps Motor and Cylinders
Replacing seals can be fairly easy and will not require a major repair process. Any maintenance technician should be able to handle that task. However, it is fairly challenging to properly repair failed pump or hydraulic motor. The process not only involves replacing a failed component, but also spending a lot of time cleaning the entire hydraulic system from metal contamination. At Elite servo, we often see metal particles stuck in valves. Metal contaminationstops spools from moving freely inside of Servo Valve. In this case we only charge our customers for cleaning and calibration and not based on the cost of a new unit.Cleaning your hydraulic system after major pump or motor failure can be very difficult. It usually takes a while for a pump to fail. During the failure process, pumps typically contaminate oil with metal, that is eventually gets distributed throughout the whole system. If hydraulic system is complicated, the entire system will have to be broken down and cleaned. Even though there are typically filtration systems are integrated in the hydraulic circuits, replacing a filter is typically not enough.Varnish
Varnish can cause a lot of problems in hydraulic systems. It is a major problem that everyone will have a discussion about sooner or later. It is pretty much inevitable product of oil degradation. The best way of fighting varnish is frequent replacement of hydraulic oil. There are many products that can be used for varnish mitigation available on the market. Varnish can cause Valves to stick, pumps to wear and oil to overheat. At Elite Servo, we use ultrasonicparts cleaning tank to remove all the varnish from the working components of all Servo Valves that we repair.
Contact Us for Servo Valve Repair On Your Hydraulic System
All the above listed contaminants can cause a major threat to your equipment. In most cases, that threat can be managed either by cleaning the entire system or certain parts of your hydraulic system. At Elite Servo we are fully dedicated to proper cleaning and inspection of every servo valve that we repair. To find out more about services that we offer please contact us today at +1-888-351-2211 or send us a direct email to sales@eliteservo.com!
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