Flexible Hose Dubai
Is there a way to time your hose replacement for critical hydraulic systems correctly?
Many production managers accept hydraulic hose failure as unavoidable and mostly unpredictable, and think of hose assemblies as mostly inexpensive equipment. So, a run-to-fail policy is usually adopted and hoses are replaced as and when they break down. On the other extreme, some hydraulic hose users replace perfectly working hoses as a pre-emptive move utilising time and money.
Other than the low cost of the hose replacement, there are hidden costs associated with fluid replacement and clean-up and also the risks posed by burst hoses to health and safety.
Is there a way to avoid this?
Flexible hose dubai
Hydraulic systems may have more than 2000 litres of oil and High pressures in the system can completely drain the entire oil within minutes. Even a tiny pin prick size hole can become a golf ball size hole within a short space of time. While most modern systems sit within a bund to collect waste oil, the oil may squirt out at an indifferent angle causing damage to equipment around it or worse causing life changing injuries to personnel. As is evident, the cost of a hydraulic hose leak , which could be replaced with a relatively inexpensive hydraulic hose assembly, is much more and includes replacing the oil, downtime due to the leak (as oil may need to be ordered and will take time), cost of cleaning up of the leaked oil and safe disposal of the same. Environmental fines may apply and if a personnel is injured, treatment and compensations costs and additional fines may need to be paid. It is easy to see how a simple hose replace cost of a few dirhams may spiral into thousands, proving that a ‘run to fail’ approach is neither a safe option nor is it an economically sound approach.
So is there a way to predict failure of hoses in time and have them replaced just before the end of their useful life?
Failure of hydraulic hoses can be predicted by calculating the usage visually or by using monitoring tools. Most modern hose systems will last for about a million cycles, and by analysing the run time of a machinery, the average life span of each hose should be calculated and recorded. Various monitoring systems are also available, that once installed within a system will detect critical levels of wear and alert you at a pre-determined point at which replacement of the hose is required. These pre-warning systems are based on RFID or infrared technology these systems are highly reliable as they are not only based on calculations but also take into account any unpredictable wear occurring due to wrong assembly or misuse.
What if monitoring technology cannot be used?
Well we will discuss how a system of calculations and manual inspection will do the job installations where monitoring devices cannot be used in another post soon. For now you can have a look at this.