The world has outgrown traditional hydraulic design
Introducing Fluid Architecture Engineering™ at CONEXPO 2026
The engineering discipline that finally optimizes compact, electrified, automated machines by engineering the fluid and its system architecture first for more efficient hydraulics.
Visit HYDAC at CONEXPO 2026 in Las Vegas, March 3-7, at booth S-81040 to see it in action.
The New Discipline: Fluid Architecture Engineering™ from HYDACA first-principles methodology that optimizes compact machines by stabilizing the fluid architecture before anything else.
Fluid Architecture Engineering™ is HYDAC’s first-principles alternative to traditional, rule-of-thumb hydraulic design. Instead of relying on oversized tanks and energy-intensive safety margins, this rigorous approach shifts the paradigm, prioritizing the fluid environment as a front-loaded design strategy.
Because when you control air, heat, contamination, flow-return behavior, and pressure harmonics, you unlock the full potential of your machine.
Engineered fluid architecture enables:
- Smaller tanks without thermal compromise
- Quieter, smoother operation
- Electrification-ready designs
- More predictable automation
- Greater reliability and uptime
- Optimized space for components and system
Start the transition by rethinking your fluid architecture. Contact us to learn more or to schedule a Fluid Architecture audit.
Understand Your Fluid Environment, FirstThe HYDAC Fluid Architecture audit, offered at no cost to OEMs working in concert with our engineers, unlocks hidden hydraulic performance.
The Fluid Architecture audit is the first step in the design consultation partnership that emphasizes the fluid environment over individual components. It identifies system-level risks and optimization opportunities hidden within your machine’s fluid system.
System Evaluation
A thorough review of existing or proposed designs that includes tank sizing analysis, flow path evaluation, and system architecture review.
Modeling and Analysis
Real-world data simulations that include CFD and air/deaeration modeling to identify thermal, contamination, pressure, and ESD risk.
Recommendations and Design
Collaboration with HYDAC experts includes recommendations and design support tailored to each OEM’s needs and stage in the optimization process.
See the Future of Hydraulics at CONEXPO 2026Visit HYDAC Booth #S-81040 for live immersive demonstrations, including:
- Air is the Enemy – How air destabilizes electrified systems
- The Tank Shrinker – How engineered deaeration reduces reservoir size
- SUSTAINMICRON Element Lab – How cleaner fluid results in freedom from electrostatic discharge, for longer component life and better systems
- The SkillBoost Simulator – How fluid architecture makes any operator feel like an expert, even when operators are greener
- The Invisible Threat Detector – How your equipment fails invisibly in the fluid
Core Elements of Fluid Architecture Engineering™The essential engineering principles behind stable, compact, and electrification-ready hydraulic systems
Machine performance begins long before fluid reaches a valve, pump, or cylinder. It begins with how the fluid is engineered, shaped, conditioned, stabilized, and guided throughout the system. Fluid Architecture Engineering™
is built on four foundational elements.
Air Management & Deaeration
Air is the enemy of electrification, automation, and predictable hydraulics
Entrained air drives instability:
- Choppy actuator motion
- Pump cavitation
- Heat generation
- Noise and vibration
- Unpredictable control response
Architectural deaeration, not oversized tanks, is the modern solution.
When air is engineered out, everything else stabilizes.
Pressure & Flow Harmonics
Hydraulic performance is defined by how pressure and flow behave under real conditions.
Traditional hydraulic design treats flow paths as plumbing. Fluid Architecture Engineering treats them as a dynamic systems. By shaping how flow harmonics, return-line behavior, and pressure transients, OEMS can achieve:
- Smoother motion
- Quieter operation
- Better automation performance
- Reduced shock loads
- Smaller reservoirs
This is essential for compact, electrified, and tightly packaged machines.
Thermal Stability & Energy Behavior
Heat is not a byproduct, it’s an architectural variable.
Thermal swings accelerate oxidation, cause viscosity shifts, and destabilize electrification performance. Engineering temperature control into the architecture results in:
- More efficient power use
- Longer fluid life
- Improved component reliability
- Quieter systems
- Lower stress on pumps, seals, and actuators
A stable temperature profile is foundational for a stable machine.
Fluid Health & Cleanliness
Clean fluid is not maintenance; it is critical design.
High-efficiency filtration is essential to achieving predictable performance in modern environments with tighter tolerances and electrified systems.
SUSTAINMICRON, HYDAC’s new, next-generation filtration technology, contributes to this foundation by:
- Maintaining lower ISO codes under high cycling
- Reducing contamination-driven failures
- Supporting compact system design
- Improving long-term efficiency and reliability
When the architecture is engineered, machines perform better.
Fluid Architecture Engineering transforms how machines are designed by stabilizing the fluid system before any mechanical optimization begins.
This is the shift the industry has been waiting for.
How Fluid Architecture Engineering™ Enables Efficient Hydraulics at Any Stage of Machine Development
Efficient hydraulics isn’t achieved through bigger pumps, tighter tolerances, or isolated component upgrades. It comes from the fluid environment, so the entire system behaves more predictably, wastes less energy, and delivers the performance modern machines demand.
This is what Fluid Architecture Engineering™ makes possible, and OEMs can begin applying the discipline no matter where they are in the design cycle. HYDAC supports multiple points of entry aligned to your platform’s maturity. Whether you’re improving a single function or designing a new machine, efficiency starts with the same truth:
Hydraulic performance is based on fluid behavior. And, fluid behavior needs to be engineered, not assumed.
Component-Level Improvements for Existing Platforms
Component-Level Improvements for Existing Platforms
For OEMs optimizing machines already in the field, even small improvements in the fluid environment can yield reduced air, improved thermal stability, corrected return-flow dynamics, and more efficient filtration, unlocking measurable gains in efficiency and reliability.
Fluid Architecture Engineering identifies where the existing architecture is working against you and applies first-principles corrections that:
- Reduce heat generation
- Lower losses
- Improve responsiveness
- Extend component life
These are efficiency gains rooted in architecture, not component swaps.
Subsystem-Level Optimization to Re-Engineer Critical Functions
Subsystem-Level Optimization to Re-Engineer Critical Functions
For OEMs improving the performance of specific functions, subsystem-focused application of the discipline examines how fluid moves, stabilizes, and interacts inside a target function like lifting, steering, articulation, or lowering.
Here, HYDAC applies architectural corrections to:
- Improve controllability
- Reduce energy waste
- Enhance operator smoothness
- Resolve dynamic instabilities
This is where “efficient hydraulics” becomes visible to operators and measurable to OEMs.
Holistic Design of the Entire Fluid Architecture
Holistic Design of the Entire Fluid Architecture
For OEMs developing new platforms or modernizing entire product lines, the full expression of Fluid Architecture Engineering rethinks hydraulic performance before hardware is selected.
Holistic application of the discipline can:
- Deliver 40-50% efficiency gains
- Shrink powertrains and tanks
- Stabilize electrified systems
- Reduce noise and vibration
- Make automation (and maintenance) more predictable
- Create smoother, safer operator experience
- Lower lifecycle cost structures
These are not outcomes that better components alone can achieve. They are the result of a holistic engineered fluid architecture.
Podcasts
Filtration / Deaeration: Air, the "Silent Killer"
This episode of HYDAC On Tap features a HYDAC development engineer and product manager discussing innovations in hydraulic system filtration, focusing on reducing air content to prevent damage like cavitation and varnish in both mobile and industrial systems. Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and specialized, innovative air filters, HYDAC engineers can optimize tank size to improve system efficiency, offering both cost and environmental benefits. HYDAC technology outperforms competitors by fitting standard tanks and reducing oil volume, leading to significant savings and enhanced machine and system performance.
Efficient Hydraulics
In this episode of HYDAC on Tap, we break down what efficient hydraulics really means and why it’s becoming so critical for modern machines. HYDAC Senior Vice President Chris Kolbe explains how designing smarter hydraulic systems can cut energy loss, reduce fuel and battery costs, and improve overall machine and system performance. From the advantages of separating multi-function systems and right-sizing components to reduction in pressure drop and capturing residual energy, Chris shows how small improvements can lead to major gains in productivity, sustainability, and total cost of ownership.
E-Mobility / Electrifying Your Vehicle
HYDAC Product Manager for e-Mobility, Ed Polzin, discusses the shift to electrification in mobile markets, highlighting HYDAC's modular "plug and play" approach featuring its Engiro motors and Invenox batteries to simplify integration for mid-sized OEMs. Key challenges addressed are Total Cost of Ownership, boosting productivity, and solving space and packaging issues for today's machine manufucturers. Polzin is part of HYDAC's Advanced System Team (AST) offering system analysis and expertise in a variety of issues facing the off-road mobile market, including thermal management, right-sizing batteries and motor controllers, as well as simplified maintenance and easy system expansions as application needs change.
SustainMicron: The New Standard In Filtration
HYDAC Product Support Specialist Eden Pagan shares how HYDAC has combined three powerful technologies into one single, standard solution for the mobile and industrial markets. Learn how a new patented double media filtration layer reduces differential pressure up to 30%, leading to lower energy consumption and reduced CO2 emissions. The new filter element technology, called Sustainmicron, includes advanced electrostatic discharge protection, essential for modern low-conductivity and biodegradable fluids, and provides superior resistance against element fatigue and dynamic pressure pulses. Hear more about the details of this new product launch and the phased transition from Opti Micron to Sustainmicron through the end of 2026.