Hydraulic Solutions for Fluid Monitoring in Hydraulic Test Stands

One major aspect overlooked in routinely servo/hydraulic-based test systems is the fluid status. Many of A-Tech Hydraulics customers knows how to monitor flow, temperature, and pressure, but do not consider testing the fluid itself, possibly one of the most important feature associated with the test data.

Many customers normally have effort with stand-to-stand confirmation, which in many occasions is the cause of test fluid and not the process or test components itself.  Water concentrations, fluid contamination, viscosity, and temperature all affect in general testing results and system response.

By controlling these variables with some easy to follow hydraulic solutions, you can get reliable test results while getting longer life from your testing equipment.

Fluid contagion

One of the main culprits connected with poor stand-to-stand validation and system response issues is fluid contamination. Inadequate monitoring and the use of dirty oil, or presuming that the fluids being uncontaminated by the hydraulic systems, filtration may be source of all your problems.

Is clean actually dirt free? Many maintenance teams do not grasp that “new oil” is in fact “new dirty oil.” Most new oils, unless ordered to a particular contagious level, is filtered to approximately 35-micron level. Without proper cleaning, adding new oil is simply contaminating your existing oil.

The only hydraulic solution to this problem is to document your fluid conditions and monitor the contagion levels. This you can do through on-bench in-line or offline testing. With a reasonably priced in-line monitoring structure you are informed of the present fluid conditions, fluid trending conditions, and able to label each tested part with the existing fluid test contagion levels through the data acquisition system.

By monitoring contagion, you are able to catch potential fluid problems and notify your technicians or us before it influences the result of your test.