HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS FEATURE
SOLVING MECHANICAL conundrums with hydraulic technology
Hydraulic technology offers many benefits to manufacturing processes, helping to drive efficiency while reducing costs, energy usage and environmental impact. Mannie Saunders, Yuken Europe general manager, explains why popularity in the technology is continuing to grow and looks into some recent applications
E
mployed in many different applications across a wide range
of sectors, hydraulic technology is essentially designed to generate, control and transmit power. However, with machine and systems builders needing to drive productivity and performance, the hydraulics industry has been pushed to develop solutions which provide a competitive edge – resulting in the need to work more closely with end users to produce bespoke solutions capable of generating even greater benefits. As an example, Yuken has delivered hydraulic products to a broad range of sectors including shipping, construction, recreational, subsea, cranes and car plants in the last 12 months. In Chester Zoo, for instance, its technology has been used in a gate on the elephant enclosure. It has also been selected for machines used to create complex mixes of Belgian chocolate, and in a host of industrial and mechanical applications – such as injection moulding machines and conveyor belts in factories. The company also has a long-standing relationship with Irish forklift truck manufacturer, Combilift, and has supplied a vital component which helps to drive the trucks, which have a single wheel at the rear and two at the front.
Yuken’s directional control valves control the flow of oil and aid the steering required by the drivers as they manoeuvre through tight and often dangerous warehouses and industrial units. Last Autumn, it secured its latest order for the valves which totalled 400 units over a six-month period. In addition to the supply agreement, Yuken is also providing ongoing R&D support to Combilift which is now building 60 forklift trucks per week. The company has, in fact, supplied close to 15,000 units to Combilift over the past three years.
RECENT PROJECTS Yuken has also designed, manufactured and installed two electro-hydraulic systems for the operation of gangways which provide safer transportation of passengers between the busy landing stage and the moored ferries at the Mersey Ferry Terminal. Mechanical ramps were previously
used to allow passengers to alight and disembark the boats, but this was manually intensive and required constant repair and adjustment. Mersey Ferries has since won a
health and safety award for the project which provided a solution to the
Mannie Saunders PUMPING MATERIALS FOR GLUE AND PAINT
From its facility in Poland, Zakład Chemiczny Paweł Paprocki manufactures adhesives and raw materials for the production of glue and paint. It uses pumps for metering products such as Caviol or Winakar PW-50, with viscosities varying from a few to tens of thousands millipascal-seconds (mPas). Due to chemical compatibility between the constituent parts of the adhesive, however, the pumps were beginning to wear so the company decided to change the progressive cavity pumps to Bredel 80 peristaltic hose pumps. These seal-less, valve-less hose pumps offer highly accurate, reliable, low maintenance metering, dosing and transfer capability across the full range of viscosities. Due to the design of the Bredel hose pumps, there
are no intrusions in the flow path, eliminating any risk of blockages. The pumped substance only contacts the reinforced, chemical-resistant hose, making them particularly suitable for handling problematic fluids such as those with a high viscosity and fluids containing abrasives or with high solids content, for example. With tests confirming that the hose materials were resistant to the chemicals in the fluids, Watson-
Marlow provided a Bredel 80 pump for on-site trials. This led to the purchase of three Bredel 80 models. Watson Marlow Pumps Group
www.wmpg.co.uk Enter 214
In the last 12 months, Yuken has delivered hydraulic products to a broad range of sectors including shipping, construction,
recreational, subsea, cranes and car plants
challenge of passenger disembarkation where there is continual movement between the ferry and landing stage. Yuken has also been subcontracted by a
direct supplier to Bombardier Aerospace, Belfast, to support the upgrade of an industrial press at the aerospace company’s fabrications factory in Newtownards. For this, Yuken is delivering a full refurbishment programme on the press, taking out and replacing drives and pumps in order to drive greater efficiency and performance. This follows similar work carried out on a 2,000-tonne press at their operations in 2012. The latest project includes an energy saving servo drive which can save up to 70% of the energy used by comparable products; and can essentially generate greater force, or torque, with slower revolutions per minute. This product, which was pioneered
by Yuken’s Japanese parent company, Yuken Kogyo, and further developed in Speke, has potential to revolutionise the hydraulics industry due to its green credentials. This recent project is key to
demonstrating the value of hydraulic technology as a whole. The energy saving servo drive operates in tandem with the power requirement of the press. It is an intelligent tool which ensures power is not needlessly wasted while the press is not being used. The equipment is expected to be installed during this year.
Yuken T: 0151 486 4696
www.yuken.co.uk
/ DESIGNSOLUTIONS
Enter 213 DESIGN SOLUTIONS | JUNE 2014 25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44