Using contamination control in condition based maintenance of a hydraulic system

Hydraulic systems are continually improving, resulting in a higher power and faster response rate while at the same time preserving the use of energy due to advancements in hydraulic drivers and control. At the same time, the degradation of these drives and control valves are exposed to wear which are primarily caused by the degradation of the fluid influenced by contamination of the same. Understanding the mechanisms of contamination failure, root causes and consequences can result in higher energy efficiency, precision and response of the hydraulic system. As such contamination control has been widely disseminated topic in the previous decades dedicated to maintaining the system cleanliness through condition monitoring, diagnostic and prognostics, encapsulated in Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) approach. Moreover, to help assess the hydraulic system, especially on a lower layer of abstraction where concrete maintenance activities are conducted to preserve the system functionality, we propose contamination control program for efficient and reliable production of force or torque at the hydraulic actuators.