How Do Hydraulic Pumps Work?
|What exactly does a hydraulic pump do? You clearly know what it is, else you wouldn’t be here. Every hydraulic system has to have some sort of pump, or all it would do is just sit there. But what exactly does it do, and how do hydraulic pumps work?
A hydraulic pump creates flow in a hydraulic system. It’s commonly mistaken that the pump creates the pressure in a system, but pressure is really just a by product of having flow (usually measured in gallons per minute). The pump simply generates flow, and the size & speed of the pump determines how much fluid it can move. If a pump is moving fluid through an open system with no resistance, there would be no pressure, but pressure is created when a load is introduced. If you are familiar with electrical systems, there are a lot of parallels to hydraulics. Flow (GPM) would be similar to voltage, while pressure (PSI) would be the equivalent of amperage.
Types of Hydraulic Pumps
There are several different types of hydraulic pumps, mainly gear pumps, vane pumps, piston pumps and hand pumps. Each type uses a different method to deliver the same effect but are typically used for different applications, as they have different attributes.
Gear Pumps
(Click to see animation) Photo courtesy: Wikipedia
How a gear pump works. Gear pumps are the most common & versatile of all types, typically having the widest range of uses and are economical & efficient. They work by meshing 2 gears together which creates flow by causing lower pressure on one side. I would compare a gear pump to the good old combustion engine. Maybe a little noisy & may have a bit more vibration, but reliable, efficient and easy to maintain.
Vane Pumps
Piston Pumps
Those are the main types of hydraulic pump used in mobile, industrial & agricultural hydraulics. There may be a few other types, but this covers about 99% of all pumps being used out there. Each type has it’s own strength/weaknesses & are available in a variety of configurations, especially when you consider that there are double & triple pumps that use these same principles. So now you have a pretty good idea of how hydraulic pumps work.
I got a load of gravel yesterday. A huge loader did most of the work. That got me wondering: “how is the hydraulic oil pressurized?”
You page is one of many I have been looking at.
I offer the following constructive criticism:
The animated images are periodically flashing images that are out of sync with the rest of the animation. This occurs with IE 10 or Firefox. I have the latest Flash player.
The piston pump is not animated. It would nice if it was animated or if a series of images were presented.
In the second paragraph, I believe the comparison of parallels between electricity and fluid is not correct. From what I recall, current(amperage) is associated with flow and Voltage with pressure.
From http://www.wikipedia.org:
“The SI unit for measuring an electric current is the ampere, which is the flow of electric charges through…”