Fluid Power Journal

Test Your Skills: Calculate the Oil Flow Rate & Pressure From a Pneumatic Intensifier

Air-oil intensifiers combine advantages of both pneumatics and hydraulics in one system. Air is spongy and lacks precision and stiffness, while hydraulic oil …

Test Your Skills: Hydraulic Components in Circuits–Mobile Valves

Load-sensing valves are designed to be used with a load-sensing pump. The valves typically have spools with metering notches allowing proportional control of …

Test Your Skills: Why Accumulators Fail

There are a number of reasons why a bladder or diaphragm in an accumulator typically fails.  The most common reason is that the compression ratio is exceeded. …

Test Your Skills: Stopping & Holding Loads Safely

Whenever a cylinder accelerates, stops, or decelerates, it applies classic Newtonian laws of motion. Considerable effort goes into designing a cylinder circuit …

Test Your Skills: The Application and Operation of Transducers

In closed loop control applications, it is necessary to convert some physical property into an electrical signal to provide a feedback signal to the amplifier. …

Test Your Skills: Sizing and Selecting Vacuum Pads

Vacuum pads are primarily used for handling smooth-surfaced material but can be used with textured or irregularly shaped material as well. Because sheet glass …

Test Your Skills: Replacing Hydraulic Valves

Even though hydraulic valves are relatively simple devices, often with only one or two moving parts, close attention needs to be paid when replacing them. …

Test Your Skills: Considering Component Capability

Some fluids with very good lubricity and viscosity characteristics may prove caustic to the material in pumps, actuators, or valves, especially when hot. There …

Test Your Skills: Opening Up About Closed Loop Control

When accuracy and repeatability are important to a process, such as when an actuator is required to follow a predetermined position profile, a closed loop …

Test Your Skills: The Application of Fluids

Selection of viscosity must be made with the normal operating temperature of the machine in mind. The temperature is usually measured at the pump. The correct …