Fluid Power Journal

Test Your Skills

Each month Fluid Power Journal brings you an industry problem with a solution the following month. 

Test Your Skills: Ensure Component Compatibility

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

The “STAMPED” Method

Designing & specifying tube assembly components The acronym “STAMPED,” as used for hose assemblies, is equally as important to use when developing tube …

Test Your Skills: Understanding the Operation of Servo Valves

Servo valves have been used to provide proportional control of fluid power systems long before proportional valves were developed. Servo valves are capable of …

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. …