By Dr. Ir. Peter Blok and Jim C. Fitch
Dutch Hydraulics Magazine
Water in a hydraulic system constitutes a very serious contaminant of the oil. Nevertheless, water contamination itself is rarely recognized, poorly understood, and until recently, considered difficult to combat. Sometimes, the damage caused by water is attributed to other types of contamination. Water often interacts with other contaminants, causing both degradation of the hydraulic oil and damage to the hydraulic components, with these effects reinforcing each other. Until now, hydraulic oil filtration has primarily focused on removing solid particles. The hydraulics industry has made significant progress in the application and maintenance of well-designed solid particle filtration systems over the past twenty years. However, the recent introduction of water-separating filters appears poised to shift the focus of oil contamination control.