Hydraulic oil leakage causes
Seal Failure
Seal failure is the common problem that your hydraulic cylinder face. Here’s a rundown of four major reasons why failure happens in a hydraulic cylinder:
●The seals are aged or damaged due to long-term or excessive use, and seals with inappropriate materials or designs are selected.
●Particles, created by components wearing down, entering the oil and damage with the O-rings and seals of the cylinder.
●Water or particles that get into a hydraulic cylinder because of an opening created by cracks or improper sealing. This can be especially dangerous, since the particles can keep entering the cylinder . Otherwise, you could end up ofen changing your sealant and O-rings, leading to increased downtime.
●The oil entering the cylinder hasn’t been properly filtered, transferring the contaminants from the reservoir to the pistons and seals.
●Finally, as we mentioned earlier, particles left on components can also contaminate the cylinder, and usually won’t have the chance of passing through a filter. So if you’re not careful during installation, you could end up having a failing hydraulic cylinder on your hands much sooner than you expected.
Installation Mistakes
Leaks with your hydraulic cylinder can start as early as installation of a new or refurbished one. It’s possible that even new cylinders can contain particles that could react with the hydraulic oil, leading to contamination of the piston and rod seals. In fact, if you’re not careful to clean out these contaminants, it could lead to a host of other problems like oil degradation and component wear, along with the leaking oil.
Another reason why your hydraulic cylinders could be leaking is because technicians aren’t using quality sealants during installation. Teflon tape and pipe dope are popular solutions, but overapplying either of them can lead to leaks at the O-rings, motor seals, cylinder rod seals, and even the hydraulic pump.
Exposed to Extreme Temperatures
Ideally, your hydraulic cylinder should be running at a temperature between 110 and 130 fahrenheit. Anything above that can affect its ability to dissipate heat, which could lead to your cylinder leaking. If your system isn’t running at a stable operating temperature, you could end up damaging the O-rings or the pumps. The costs of replacing these components can add up, and that’s not factoring in the downtime necessary to make repairs or replacements.
Temperatures for your hydraulic cylinder can also rise if you haven’t calibrated your compensator pressure settings properly. If you’ve dialed the compensator pressure setting higher than what the relief valve can handle, your system’s pump will send oil back to the reservoir to reduce back pressure to the system. This entire process can increase load on the pump, increasing the temperature of the oil that flows into the hydraulic cylinder. This can damage the pump and can cause the seals to decay and start to leak.
Overtightening
Over-tightening is another common problem that you can run into with your hydraulic cylinders, and this is especially likely to happen during installation. Some technicians think that “tighter fittings” can reduce the possibility of a leak. But the truth is that tightening fittings beyond the manufacturers torque specifications can have the opposite effect.
If you tighten your fittings more than the requirement, you could crush seals or deform threads. Over-tightened fittings are also more likely to break during routine pressure, leaving you with a ticking time bomb that could snap and bring your system to a halt.
Corrosion
Corrosion can look like rust or small pits on or inside the cylinder, which contribute to the contamination of your hydraulic cylinder. If you’ve left your hydraulic cylinders to the elements, where it can react with the moisture in the air, before installing, the oil will likely carry the rust particles to other components like the pistons.
Hydraulic oil leak solution
Replacing seals
Regular maintenance inspection and replacement of seals, selection of correct seal material, design and size according to working conditions.If you have not been able to identify the sealing problem, consult the TYS team of experts to analyze the situation and find a sealing solution.
Hire Industry Professionals
While this might sound obvious, a lot of the issues that we mentioned above can be avoided if you’re careful when hiring your team of professionals. They’ll be sure not to overtighten fittings, cover cylinders and their parts when not in use, use proper sealant, and clean out the cylinder to keep manufacturing particles from reacting with the oil. All of these steps can improve the longevity of your hydraulic cylinders and reduce the possibility of a leak.
Use Contamination Control Practices
Next, to effectively deal with cylinder contamination and the leaks that come with it, you should employ effective contamination control practices. This can include:
- Usinghigher quality hydraulic oil , which is less likely to react with contaminants and avoid wearing down your machinery. You should also choose oil that fit’s the viscosity grade of your operation, otherwise your components are likely to degrade faster, leading to leaks.
- Installing better filtration systems and components that are less likely to fail. They should also be fine enough to even catch smaller pieces of debris, without slowing down the oil.
- Perform regular system flushes to get rid of sludge, reducing the possibility of contaminants getting into your hydraulic cylinder.
Don’t Overtighten
Funnily enough, instructing technicians to not overtighten can often lead to them under tightening fittings, which can cause leaks. So when tightening fittings, be sure to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines exactly. Use the right fittings of the right size, and apply the torque with the correct tools. Only when all of the above factors go well will you properly tighten your hydraulic cylinder’s fittings without causing issues with the rest of your system.
Prevent Overpressure with Customized Cylinder Designs
If your current hydraulic cylinder keeps running into leaks, then your system might not be right for your business’s requirements. If you’re regularly working at high pressure levels or in more extreme environments, you’ll want to install cylinders specifically made to handle those situations. Custom designed hydraulic cylinders will also include strategically placed pressure relief valves that can control the flow of oil to the pistons to manage both pressure and heat.
Conclusion
Leaks in hydraulic cylinders during routine operations can lead to delays and expensive repairs. But if you’re quick to spot leaks and its symptoms like cracks, broken fittings, or crushed seals, you can reliably solve these issues without running into a major system failure.
