Reducing water content in hydraulic oil – increasing quality HYDAC - your partner for efficient hydraulic solutions in grinding machines
Read this success story to find out how you can reduce the water content in hydraulic oil for grinding machines, improving quality.
Efficient hydraulic solutions for grinding machines
In the grinding process, precision is the top priority. First and foremost, this calls for powerful and clean machining fluids and lubricating fluids. In practice, water-based coolants are sometimes used. This can lead to problems in the grinding process if the water-based coolant is able to bypass the seals and mix with the hydraulic fluid used as track lubrication. This can result in corrosion and rust on the machine guides, which leads to a drop in quality in the machined workpieces. The high water content also gives rise to very short oil service lives, meaning that the oil needs to be changed frequently, with high service costs. For these reasons, machine operators are increasingly pressuring grinding machine manufacturers to come up with an efficient and cost-effective solution for keeping the water content in the hydraulic fluid consistently low.
Increased efficiency and optimised costs for grinding machines with the innovative and stand-alone dewatering solution from HYDAC
Our customer in this example is an internationally operating grinding machine manufacturer. One of their customers operates their machines with a water-based coolant for cooling and for removing machining chips. The customer complained of track oil mixing with water from the coolant in their grinding machine. This led to corrosion at the high-precision machine guides – and a large drop in machining quality. The grinding machines, with a tank volume of 400 litres and 0.1 litres of water entering every day, also required very costly service calls. The machine operator wanted the system manufacturer to provide an efficient solution to this problem. The aim was to achieve a longer oil service life through automatic, integrated and filter aid-free dewatering. The idea was that solution to be implemented would not entail any additional maintenance costs. In addition, a temperature increase in the system was to be avoided to safeguard the workpiece quality. The machine manufacturer was not able to find a design that would prevent water from entering and all other conventional approaches would not have been economically viable for the end customer. In a sales meeting, the machine manufacturer described the problem and asked HYDAC for support. To analyse the problem accurately, HYDAC performed various measurements and laboratory tests on site on the system operator’s premises. In a joint development project, a dewatering unit that works autonomously in the bypass flow was created, the FAM-1 OEM.
The FAM-1 OEM dewatering solution
The FAM-1 OEM solution is a dewatering unit from the FluidAqua Mobil FAM series, designed for continuous use in small hydraulic systems. The key element of the unit is the MiniOX MOX, a hydraulically driven degassing and dewatering unit. Based on tried-and-tested vacuum technology, it can be used to keep the water content below the saturation point. For oil temperatures below 35 °C, we recommend using an additional heater to increase the dewatering rate. A HYDAC plate heat exchanger is also used to recool the fluid flow. This combination results in automatic, filter aid-free dewatering that runs in parallel with the process.
The result
To validate the technology, a prototype was initially tested at the customer’s technology centre and presented to the end customer as a proposed solution to the water problem. The prototype was then successfully tested on a machine belonging to the system operator. The water was separated to well below the required level. Since then, the end customer has used the FAM-1 OEM continuously. Further tests have also been successfully completed with a German automotive manufacturer. In this case, the saturation level quickly stabilised at roughly 50%. The results were therefore more than satisfactory in both projects and the dewatering solution prototype was well received by the operators. Using the FAM-1 OEM made it possible to fulfil all of the requirements.
Based on this success, we are now a series supplier for our customer with our FAM-1 OEM for machines with water-based coolants. On top of this, other existing systems were retrofitted with the dewatering unit.
Your advantages with the FAM-1 OEM
Machine availability
The machine availability is increased thanks to reduced failures.
Conservation of resources
Improving the oil cleanliness significantly lengthens the oil service life.
Service and maintenance
The automatic and filter aid-free solution leads to no additional staff costs. Another benefit is that no additional oil analysis is required to determine the water content.
Cost optimisation
The costs are lowered by a reduction in machine failures and a lower service and maintenance workload.
DownloadCustomer success story: FAM-1 OEM in grinding machines
Reducing water content in hydraulic oil – increasing quality
