Hydraulic System Design
Professional Hydraulic Engineering
CMA’s first line of business was designing and building hydraulic systems for customers who wanted professional, unbiased advice. The CMA systems designed and built during the 1990s are still operating, and most have never resulted in plant outages or loss of production.
CMA designs and builds systems to provide an optimum solution for the customer’s requirements. Characteristics of CMA built systems include:
- Energy efficiency. Electric motors turning pumps running at minimal load consume typically 50% of the power needed to turn the same pump under full load. Reducing the number of pumps, and their overall size directly reduces energy consumption as well as capital cost. This strategy requires carefull design however, to ensure that overall system operation is not compromised.
- Peak Reliability. The 3 dominant factors that result in reduced hydraulic reliability are oil contamination, shock (poorly controlled motion), and heat. Carefull design and an engineering (as opposed to sales) focus allows these factors to be designed out of the system.
- Safety and Access. Attention to small detail makes all the difference to how well a system can be used and maintained. Items such as pressure gauge points, leakage containment, designed access and lifting of items requiring service, appropriate use of pressure and accumulator safety valves, and access to hoses and fittings can all be designed in to a system to ensure long and safe service life.
- Standards. The type of fittings, manufacture of reservoirs and manifolds, design of pipework layouts, style of valves used, and circuit design all significantly impact upon the performance and reliability of systems. CMA’s engineers learnt our craft in the Steel industry, where the highest standards are required, and where there is ample experience with the problems of poorer standards of equipment.
