Hydraulics !! You see them ! Now learn a bit too !!

I have noticed that even if many people do not have a electronics background but still some of them can manage  well to study electric circuit diagrams. They know resistors, lights and some  even know an op-amp.

But, do a non-mechanical background people manage to study mechanical diagrams ? No ! I don't think so. Atleast, I was not able to study any of them before the Mechatronics subject introduced in this semester of my engineering course.

Our lecturer told us to submit an assignment which he already explained. The assignment was about explaining the 'Basic Hydraulic System'. Rather then copying the assignment from anywhere else, I choose it to write it in my own terms because it was quite of a interesting stuff, and a must-have basic knowledge of mechanical system.

So here it goes!!

 

Explanation of a Hydraulic System

Figures show a hydraulic system. The reservoir is where the oil is stored. It is connected to a pump which pumps the oil. The pump is accompanied by a motor for it to function. Also seen in the figure is a MRV (main relieve Valve) which relieves the hydraulic system from high pressure resulting from excessive oil. This excessive oil is released into the reservoir.

We have a 3 position 4 way direction control valve. The control valve is ‘3 position’ because it can be set to 3 different position and at every position it executes an important task of the entire system. ‘4 way’ means that there are 4 unidirectional path through which the fluid (oil) can flow. Now let us understand each of the position in detail in context of the system.

At position one: (P1)

The pump pumps the fluid from the reservoir. The ‘One Way Valve’ ensures that the fluid travels only in one direction. The control valve is in such a position that one inlet lets the fluid in towards the double acting hydraulic ram and one outlet takes back the fluid from the hydraulic ram such that the fluid goes back into the reservoir. The pressures differences created by the fluid make the piston moves outward.

At position two: (P3)

At this position the inlet (and outlet) fluid goes to the other side of the hydraulic ram (opposite side as compare to position one). The pressures differences created by the fluid make the piston moves inward. (Opposite to position one)

At position three: (P2)

This is the neutral position. Here the fluid is blocked by the control valve so that no fluid movement can take place between the hydraulic ram and the rest of the system. This halts the piston and piston becomes stationery. This position has a great significance because a user may want to dynamically control the piston by operating the control valve. At this position a user can halt the piston at any instant of time.