Many businesses that require hydraulic machinery in day-to-day operations are under increasing pressure to reduce their costs and spending each year. More than $600 billion per year is spent by the industry in general on repairing damage caused by wear. (Source: Machinery Lubrication).
Reduce the cost of running hydraulic equipment by considering factors including maintenance, physical inspection, hydraulic fluids, repair, and subsequent downtime.
Maintenance
Most in the industry would understand the importance of predictive maintenance and the impact it can have on the overall running cost of used hydraulic equipment.
Although it takes time and resources, predictive maintenance fixes small issues before they become large ones, therefore extending the life of hydraulic components and avoiding the need for replacements.
Used hydraulic equipment can lose power or underperform if it hasn’t been properly maintained or repaired. This affects the productivity of machinery and puts a strain on other hydraulic components in the system.
There are three kinds of maintenance: scheduled, predictive, and preventative, all of which aim to keep your equipment calibrated and in good form to maximise productivity and minimise issues.
There are three key factors in ensuring that maintenance is carried out correctly:
- Communication – Sharing information between team members to identify problems and potential solutions.
- Accountability – Building a new and clear process encourages people to take responsibility and work together to solve problems, rather than hiding or ignoring them.
- Timeline – A proper schedule and checklist that is completed on-time is critical to the maintenance of used hydraulic equipment.
A regular maintenance routine can streamline all tasks to reduce downtime and operating costs.
Hydraulic Fluids
The fluids used in hydraulic equipment affect the productivity and life of those components. The viscosity will change the component’s efficiency and the small amount of internal fluid leakage acts as lubrication to reduce wear between moving parts.
At the optimum temperature and pressure, hydraulic equipment can operate with high efficiency. It’s common for hydraulic systems to run at higher-than-optimal temperature, which can cause them to lose an up to a third of their efficiency.
The wrong hydraulic fluid and too high temperature will cause accelerated wear, inefficiency and increased operating cost. This issue can be tackled in three stages:
- Use the right hydraulic fluid – Choosing a fluid with the correct operating viscosity for pumps, etc. will maintain hydraulic performance
- Store & handle hydraulic fluid correctly – Contamination of fluids during storage is harmful to hydraulic equipment performance. Contamination can be caused by unclean containers, mixed products or use beyond the product’s shelf life.
- Monitor & assess incidents – Record incidents of leakages, mishandling, mixing, and usage to determine where you can optimise your process.
Repair & Exchange
Hourly costs of equipment downtime are usually one of the highest operating costs.
If equipment can’t be immediately fixed onsite, it needs to be sent to a workshop to be rebuilt. There are several options available to you; rebuilt live end assembies, service exchange, and component repair.
The best option would be to use remanufactured parts from a premium service whose focus is getting your  components back onsite ASAP. Hydramech’s repairs are carried out to the highest standard possible using speciality materials.
Gettingcomponents back onsite reduces downtime and associated operating costs so you can be up and running again as soon as possible. At Hydramech, we offer a free exchange program so while your used hydraulic equipment is stripped and quoted for repair, we’ll send you a refurbished part from our stock to keep you up and running.
Our inventory is constantly evolving: Check out our current stock here
Hydramech specialises in mobile mining machinery components including hydraulic cylinder services for underground mining equipment within Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
Contact us today for your hydraulic machinery needs.
