By Dr. Ir. Peter Blok and Jim Fitch
Olhydraulik und Pneumatik
Water in a hydraulic system constitutes a very serious form of oil contamination. Technically, water contamination is rarely recognized as such, poorly understood, and, until recently, considered difficult to combat. The damage caused by water is usually attributed to other causes. Water often interacts with other types of contamination. It causes both degradation of the hydraulic oil and damage to the hydraulic components, which reinforce each other. In the past, the filtration of hydraulic oil was solely aimed at removing solid particles. The hydraulic industry has therefore made great progress over the last twenty years in the application and maintenance of well-designed filtration systems for solid particles in hydraulic oil. However, the recent introduction of water-removing filters seems destined to shift the focus in the management of hydraulic oil contamination.