Podcast

Dealing with Contamination in Hydraulic Systems

Learn how contamination in hydraulic systems happen, and how you can prevent it.

Episode 72: Bob Ihrig is the Applications Engineer of Filter Systems, and Timothy Rodman is the Marketing Supervisor from Schroeder Industries.

In this episode, we discuss the most common reasons for hydraulic systems to become contaminated, the best ways to prevent it, and how Schroeder Industries can save you money.

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Show Notes

Question 1: What is the main problem that Schroeder Industries products solve for fleets, and what is the economic impact of that problem?

The main problem they solve is solid particle contamination, which is the leading cause of hydraulic system failures. There are many different types of contamination, and things that could go wrong, which can cause a domino effect and make the whole system come down.

Question 2: What are the common reasons for hydraulic systems to become contaminated?

There are three common issues. Built-in (dust and dirt from the manufacture), Dirt ingression (working on your hydraulic system in a dusty or dirty environment), and finally, internal (when you have two or more components grinding on each other when you’re operating, which causes metallic or steel components to chip off and get in the fluid).

Question 3: What are the best ways to prevent contamination?

It begins with understanding and mitigation. Generally, it’s tiny particles that get in the system, very hard to see, which makes it very hard to eliminate altogether. However, proper filtration, and fluid condition monitoring, is vitally important to long-term reliability.

Question 4: It’s not just hydraulic fluid that is susceptible to contamination, what other solutions do you provide?

Contamination doesn’t just affect hydraulic, but rather effects everything that flows, or is fluid. Their solutions provide conditioning and monitoring options for anything low velocity.

Question 5: Can you share any success stories that illustrate a customer who has used these best practices with your products, and what economic impact did that have on their fleet?

They were able to deploy two Schroeder Asset Management Filtration Station units (AMFS) which is an intelligent offline filtration and condition monitoring product on a mobile cart. With this, they were able to drastically improve a 100-truck refuse fleet. The fluid of this fleet was two classes above what it should’ve been. To achieve this the fluid was simply being replaced often to offset the other replacement costs. This was costing the customer $98,000 annually. By deploying their solution, they increased the replacement duration resulting in roughly $65,000 in savings.

Question 6: What does Schroeder Industries do to educate their customers about the impacts of contamination on their hydraulic systems?

They have really tried to push their marketing more from a product focus standpoint. The more people know about the harmful effects of contamination on their systems, the better off they will be. They also have a mobile pocket guide, which is a storybook way of learning the effects of contamination, and how to fix the problem.

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