blow out at 3500

[JPH]

DD:

Well when I break something I BREAK it...no half efforts on my part when it comes to total destruction...

Talk about T&E learning... well the mess is cleaned up and I am back to smashing things so this is good...

JPH

[Candidquality]

Glad to know you are ok. Did you decide to put up a few barriers just in case this happens again to minimise the swath of destruction? or are you running as it was before? Glad to hear you're up and running again. Hopefully you're not too far behind on that hot project. And don't forget to let us know if they ever decide to tell you what happened, should be an interesting find.

[JPH]

Candid:

well once I get Julius broken dopwn for the upcoming move (oh I am so NOT looking forward to that...) I will enlcose all the valaves and sltt in a heavy duty plastic tub just is case his happens again.

As it is I am a bit behind but I shall catch up in the next few days. The reapirs cost me some $$$ that I didn;t have planned but old Julius will pay for that in a couple of day's worth of work on the time he saves me NOT having to flatten and true by hand.

All in all it could of been much worse than it was...

JPH

[Ten Hammers]

Dr. Jim, this is just a question and a suggestion. Do you have an element filter on the system ? Perhaps this has been mentioned in a prior post and if so My apologies. You can plumb a screw on filter in the return line (suction ). If I understand it correctly, the failure was from system contamination ?

[Phil Patrick]

JPH,

The equipment I work with for cnc sheetmetal fabrication has alot of hydraulic circuits. The main one on our punch shear machines run at 480 BAR. That translates to about 6900 PSI @ aroung 100 liters a minute. One of our customers I visited on a service call ruptered a steel Pressure line to the punching head while in production. Luckily it burst up, so no one was hurt. The jet coming out of a 50mm steel pressure line at that pressure is enough to kill you.
The funny part was when I arrived there to make repairs 12 hours after it had happened, there was still hydraulic oil dripping from the ceiling and light fixtures 18 feet up. It covered the working surfaces of the machine, the control cabinet, everywhere. The machine shut itself down when it saw the drop of circuit pressure, but it still ran long enough to pump close to 35 gallon of oil everywhere.

I worked with these machines and others for many years that run hydraulics. ALWAYS exercise mucho mucho respect for hydraulic pressure.

Be safe!!!!!!

OH FYI,, if your gloves get soaked in any oil, and you want to salvage them,, just bury them in kitty litter overnight. It draws it right out.

Phil

[Daryl]

After looking at the photograph you posted, I have some questions:
1. Are there any plugs or parts on the underside sticking out?
2. Is this the same side that is bolted down?
3. Do you know if the relief valve was closed off?

Ensure when bolting down any valve that there is no uneven pressure on the valve block. Such strain may cause weakening and/or enough pressure to not allow a valve to relieve pressure.
Hydraulics is not the place to 'think it's okay', it must be perfect or don't even start.

[JPH]

Daryl:

Ok...there was no pressure relief valve on this system when it blew..there is now though...I got it located before the valave with the overpressure relief line running back to the tank. One of the problems of designing a system when you really don't have all the info you need...

Ten:

On the filter..I have two can filters, one on the tank between the tank and pump and one on the line on the return to the tank, both on the "low pressure" lines..

Boy I tell ya this was a total mess to clean up though...but I am back up and running....

JPH

[Ten Hammers]

Good on the filters. Was just wondering if the contamination in the system was dealt with and now clean. Good luck and glad you up and running.