Engineering Basics

By Ron Marshall, Contributing Editor Fred had been the plant engineer at the packaging facility for nearly ten years, and he thought he understood his compressed air system well. The compressors ran, the machines worked most of the time, and whenever there was a moisture problem someone usually changed a filter or drained a receiver […]

Sensors are not as talked about as some other Internet of Things technologies, despite their critical role within the Industry 4.0 community at large. Sensors are technologies in fluid power that read, interpret, and transmit data based on one or more criteria important to observe: pressure, temperature, flow, contamination, water saturation, and vibration, to name…

An actuator is any device that converts one form of energy into physical, linear force. From a fundamental definition of the word, one could assert that motors are also actuators, but from a practical perspective, the machine world agrees on the linear definition. The primary source of energy can be pressurized air or liquid, electricity,…

Contributed by Xing Hong, Founder, WRKR Seal Hydraulic systems depend on reliable sealing at every connection point. When an O-ring fails in a hydraulic circuit, the consequences range from minor fluid weeping to catastrophic pressure loss, environmental contamination, and unplanned downtime that costs thousands of dollars per hour in heavy industry. Yet a significant share […]

Bladder accumulators are an industry-standard choice, as commonly available as D03 valves or NFPA-style hydraulic cylinders. Your outside sales team is always happy to see them in a factory, because everyone offers an option to either repair or replace them. The big names all make them (or bought companies that make them), but there are…

By Josh Cosford, Contributing Editor I’ve been in the fluid power industry for over two decades, and I’ve made precisely one hydraulic tube, which was an assignment for one of my hydraulic classes at Mohawk College. Despite my personal lack of man-hours bending tubes, every hydraulic professional should understand the principles of tube bending. I’m […]

Optimizing industrial systems can be done easily with variable-displacement axial piston pumps. As industrial manufacturers continue to focus on improving efficiency, controllability, and energy usage, variable-displacement axial piston pumps have become an increasingly important technology for optimizing hydraulic system performance. While the core technology has been established for decades, continued advancements in pump controls, variable…

Preventing downtime before it starts is crucial to safe, cost-effective and reliable hose assemblies. By Trey Travis, Vice President of Operations, Southeastern Hose In manufacturing environments, reliability is everything. Production schedules and worker safety all depend on systems operating as intended. While pumps and control systems often receive significant attention during maintenance planning, industrial hose […]

When a pneumatic system suffers a catastrophic failure, such as a blown seal, a ruptured airline, or a seized cylinder, the maintenance team must respond instantly to treat it. These unexpected ailments reduce productivity, increase costs, and work your millwrights ragged. Many pneumatic systems experience chronic unwellness, much as we humans do with cardiovascular disease; […]

Contributed by Ron Marshall Richard, the maintenance manager at a plant that manufactures powdered coatings, was used to dealing with heat. The curing ovens in the facility ran hot, and summer months always made the production floor uncomfortable. But one area of the plant seemed especially unbearable — the compressor room. Every time Richard stepped […]

By Ron Marshall When the phone rang in the summer a few years ago, Ron knew the project would be unusual. A sawmill nearly 1,000 miles away needed a compressed air assessment, but an injured knee made flying impossible. Normally, a project like this would require airports, hotels, and days spent carrying instruments through the […]

By Josh Cosford, Contributing Editor For the same reason you should never put your hand on a hydraulic hose to check for leaks, never use traditional hydraulic oil anywhere near a heat or flame source. No, being around a hot ingot or furnace won’t give you injection wounds, but a pinhole spray from a 3,000 […]

By Josh Cosford, Contributing Editor Hydraulic hose assemblies are critical components in fluid power systems, responsible for transferring pressurized fluid as a force transfer method to and from components such as pumps, cylinders, valves, and motors. Understanding the fundamentals of hydraulic hose is essential for ensuring system reliability, efficiency, and safety in both industrial and […]

This guide breaks down budget, midrange, and premium test kits to help technicians quickly pinpoint losses in pressure, flow, and efficiency in hydraulic systems. Hydraulic troubleshooting requires a fundamental understanding of thermodynamics, experience with various machine types, as well as years of familiarity with various hydraulic schematics. In some ways, it’s like being a doctor…

Contributed by Michael Tuohey  • Regional Marketing Manager, North America, Piab In modern manufacturing, safety is a core design requirement. As more processes become automated and rely on vacuum, the way vacuum systems are engineered has a direct impact on the safety of people, products, and assets. Piab’s approach places safety at the center, combining […]

Walk through almost any manufacturing plant and you’ll hear it, the steady hum of compressors, the hiss of air tools, the pulse of production. To many, it sounds like business as usual. But to someone who understands compressed air systems, that same sound can also mean one thing: Money leaking away! Compressed air is often […]

By Josh Cosford, Contributing Editor Hoop stress. It’s a real term, and it’s not discussed nearly enough in fluid power. Hoop stress describes the circumferential stress against a tube, cylinder or circular wall caused by internal pressure acting outward. If you visualize the steel bands that circle a wine barrel, you get the idea. But […]

By Ron Marshall In many industrial plants, the real cost of compressed air isn’t just the air being used on the production floor, it’s the energy consumed when the compressor is running — but not producing useful air. Choosing the wrong operating mode for your compressor can be surprisingly expensive. It’s a bit like sitting […]

Joe stood in the middle of his plant, watching a critical machine sputter to a halt. His operator pointed at the gauge, which read 25 psi lower than the compressor’s display in the back room. To fix it, Joe did what most managers do: he bumped up the discharge pressure at the source. This boosted […]

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a fundamental shift in how many fluid power companies are viewing themselves and the technologies and services they provide. Rather than calling themselves pump or cylinder companies, they are positioning themselves as system partners who are delivering more fully integrated systems that bring together the best of all…

Keeping contamination at bay and protecting cylinders in mining applications requires careful selection of hydraulic seals. By Josh Cosford, Contributing Editor Let’s just cut to the chase; mining makes for a horrific environment for seals. From incessant contamination to pressure spikes, and from exotic fluids to environmental extremes, pretty much every cause of hydraulic seal…

Noise is often inevitable in hydraulic systems, but discovering its sources can help you to better design your systems to alleviate some of it. Monday morning traffic, lineups at the Krispy Kreme drive-through, and teenagers; all crap we just put up with every day with nary more than a shrug. I’m officially adding noisy hydraulics…

By Jermaine Perry  • Sales Manager, Daughtridge Sales, an MCE Automation company Walk through almost any manufacturing plant — food and beverage, pharmaceutical, biotech — and you’ll see pressure gauges everywhere. They’re mounted on tanks, filtration systems, and process lines. Their familiarity makes them dangerous. Pressure gauges are sometimes treated as commodity items, something to…

By Ron Marshall Remember when your compressed air system was new? The compressors and dryers were shiny, the installation was perfect, and everything was finely tuned for optimal performance. But time takes its toll. Components wear out, sensors fail, and well-meaning adjustments can knock the entire system out of harmony, quietly costing you a fortune […]

When it comes to compressed air efficiency, misunderstandings are everywhere. Many plants operate under assumptions that lead to wasted energy, higher costs, and reduced reliability. Correcting these misconceptions can improve both performance and the bottom line. Here are some of the most common myths — and the reality behind them. Compressed air is free once […]