Blending art with science to troubleshoot fluid power systems.

By Tom Nash, Applied Industrial Technologies

One of the worst sounds in an industrial setting is a fluid power system with serious problems. Even worse is the eerie silence when everything shuts down due to a failure.

When a fluid power system fails, the first impulse is to grab a tool kit and start tearing the system apart to find the problem. A better approach is to pick up a pencil and paper. A few minutes spent analyzing the situation up front will save big dollars later. Troubleshooting fluid power systems is as much an art as it is a science.

Getting started

The starting point in troubleshooting a failed system is to list every component that could have generated the symptom. An entire system usually does not fail. Rather, a single component or a few related components fail and shut down the system. Keep in mind that the symptom could be different than the cause of the failure.

Once a list of suspect components has been compiled, they can be eliminated systematically. Begin by talking with the system operators. Most likely, they will not have noticed a slow failure in a system until the machine could not keep up with production. They certainly would have noticed a sudden failure. Write down all pertinent information and use it to help validate the list of suspects. This process may add more components to the list.

Now, begin by asking, 'what if?' This is where the art and science blend. The art portion requires understanding a few of the more logical places to start. The science validates the suspicions. Ask yourself, 'If that part failed, what would have happened to the rest of the system?' If a particular component appears to be a logical suspect, start by testing that component and work through the other possibilities.