Hydraulics & Pneumatics: Experience is the best teacher, but it is also the most expensive. And when you work in technical support, you see a lot of widespread, expensive learning going on as the same mistakes crop up again and again. Here are some common and easily preventable ones involving valves.
1 comment:
I like how this article points out that, while experience is the best teacher, it can also be the most costly. In our world, we don't necessarily deal with such high stakes unless we go work for a company like Tait, however I would much rather read about these common mistakes than experience them myself! The overall theme of this article is a core lack of understanding about the fundamentals of hydraulic and pneumatic systems. I find that often people struggle for a bit to understand these systems because the properties can seem counter-intuitive. For example, the first portion talks about pressure differentials. In rigid body dynamics, we are used to working around a maximum force on a system. However, in fluid power, everything is about the pressure differential. The valve rating of 3 bar doesn't mean 5 bar overloads it necessarily, but rather the differential implies the other side needs at least 2 bar. This can be confusing (not to mention gauge pressures), but once you grasp the concept it makes installing systems much clearer.
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