Posted on October 31st, 2016

Experts estimate that more than 50% of hydraulic equipment failure can be attributed to lubrication issues such as incorrect oil, inadequate or incorrect filtration, contamination, additive breakdown, etc.

Preventable Failures

The above pictures show the components of the hydraulic pumps from an excavator after a catastrophic failure. During the failure the pumps distributed the debris of the failure throughout the hydraulic system. The insurance company report on the incident concluded that the failure was due to “lubrication failure”. The very costly repair almost resulted in the machine being scrapped.

Start with good information

Good information about hydraulic oil is easy to come by. The suppliers of oil are very willing to provide good information if an Internet search does not produce the answers. Often however, the owners, managers and operators of hydraulic equipment do not bother to find out about this, the lifeblood of their hydraulic systems, even when something goes wrong.

Look at the big picture

It is the norm for operators, big and small, to choose their oils and filters purely on cost of the individual item, not on the “big picture” value that these items have the potential of providing if chosen correctly. This short-sighted approach can lead to costly damage, excessive downtime and dramatically reduce the life of equipment.

Hydraulic Oil, The basics

It doesn’t take much education to start asking the correct questions and seeking further information. We hope to get this education process started with a 5 part series introducing the basic terminology and concepts as well as some good practice. This series is aimed at owners, operators, managers, accountants, maintenance staff and lay-people who are involved with hydraulic equipment.

The first part will be on the types of oils used, “weights”, additives, viscosity, etc. The second part will discuss the types and sources of contamination. The third part will explain the ISO cleanliness code and relate this code to different equipment. The 4th chapter will  discuss filters, filter media, efficiencies of filters and rating systems. The final chapter will explain filter position and give some industry good practice on filtration.

Reference on our Website

After publication, the information will be available on our website www.hydraulicsolution.com for  quick and easy reference.