Hydraulic Equipments & Their Working Mechanism

Industrial revolution accommodates a whole lot of aspects, from ideas to inventions, from unions to possibilities and further. But, when it comes to the wheels on which the industrial revolution rested, it is none other than the aspect of movement. Movement is force, energy, mechanism etc. One such powerful modes of movement, falls under the broad category of hydraulics.

Hydraulics is the study and usage of mechanical properties of a host of liquids. Often dubbed as fluid mechanics, hydraulics like other mechanisms can be used for the generation and control along with the transmission of power, via the utilization of pressurized liquids (fluids).

Hydraulics is a very useful branch and is instrumental in a variety of aspects; some of these aspects are listed as follows:

• Pipe flow
• Design of dams
• Fluidics & fluid control circuits
• Pumping solutions
• Turbines
• Log splitters and construction equipment
• Hydropower aspects
• Braking systems
• Cranes, loaders and other equipment
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Flow measurements
• Irrigation and related fields

The scope of hydraulics is seeing a new face with a rigorous round of research and development still going on.

Machines which operate on the hydraulic mechanism are referred as hydraulic equipments (often called as hydraulic machinery).

The basic principle of all hydraulic mechanisms is about a force that is being applied at one point and getting transmitted to a different point with the help of an incompressible fluid. This force or thrust gets multiplied during the process. The simplest of hydraulic systems and even the most advanced hydraulic sectors utilize this basic working module to operate. Oil is the most commonly used incompressible fluids in any kind of a hydraulic setup.

Hydraulic Equipment Parts
Hydraulic systems utilize pistons, cylinders, valves and hydraulic pumps (pumps supply high pressure oil) for functioning. In the simplest of designs, at least 2 cylinders, one being the master cylinder and the second being a slave cylinder (cylinders have pistons working inside them) are used. But, the functioning can be altered to have multiple slave cylinders to be run by a single master cylinder.

The common car braking system utilizes as many as four slave pistons, one fitted near each wheel apart from a single master cylinder.

Hydraulic Multiplication Factor
Another important concept in the working of hydraulic equipments is the multiplication factor (force multiplication). As the multiplication factor is responsible in terms of the output and capacity, there are many mathematical formulae to determine the multiplication factor.

No doubt, most hydraulic systems use oil for operation, still the set-up requires a decent haul of maintenance and inspection. All in all, with its capacity and scope, hydraulic mechanisms have been the basis of many modern systems.