January 1999
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14 Reads
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2 Citations
Proceedings of the JFPS International Symposium on Fluid Power
High and medium pressure water hydraulics is widely used in various industrial applications. In applications where extreme environmental safety is needed and in applications in fire hazardous environment water hydraulics has been proven to be the best solution available. However, component costs in high and medium pressure water hydraulics are relatively high and therefore they are often substituted by other methods of power transmission. Other alternatives, such as conventional oil hydraulics, pneumatics and electric drives, however always lack some qualities water hydraulics could offer. To offer a technically competitive and cost effective alternative for them, the possibility of using low pressure and relatively cheap materials and components, such as centrifugal pumps, in water hydraulic system was studied.Test systems were constructed using centrifugal pump, pneumatic cylinders and ordinary plumbing components, including rigid PVC-tubing and PVC-hoses. The over all performance of systems was studied as well as performance and suitability of components.Test results indicate that in applications where force required from actuators are not very high a low pressure waterhydraulic system can offer a competitive alternative to conventional methods of power transmission. In this paper we present comparison of low-pressure water hydraulics to other alternatives of power transmission. Power density, system efficiency, relative component and system costs and noise level are compared, based on measurements from test systems. Also pressure transients and other characteristics of systems were studied and are presented in this paper.