System enhances equipment’s fuel efficiency, service life and reliability in addition to making it user-friendly.

In the construction industry, there are several construction equipment (CE) used like excavators, backhoe, bulldozers, crane, hoists etc. Heavy CE are designed for multiple functions, making them essential on job sites. Heavy machineries are operated through mechanical advantage and continuously seeking for higher output power, which is fulfilled by hydraulic drives. Hydraulic and pneumatic power unit uses oil and air as their operating medium respectively.

Essential role in evolving CE
Hydraulic system mainly transfers large amount of power from either electric power source or IC engines. This system uses fluid force utilised in actuators to do the needful work like lifting heavy loads, moving, digging, excavating etc. Amol More, Design Engineer, Indian Pneumatic & Hydraulic Co Pvt Ltd says, “CE has been evolved over the years in terms of their efficiency, speed and power. Hydraulics played a vital role in making construction equipment efficient and smarter. As new technologies are getting introduced in pumps and motors, the pressure is increasing and actuator becoming compact in size.”

Backbone of CE functioning
CE industry is one of the most evolving industries with new equipment based on latest technology and trends being launched every month. As fluid mechanics was introduced in the industry it soon changed the way construction equipment we perceived and designed. It was possible to enhance the operational capabilities of equipment without increasing the input material cost in most of the cases, due to simpler fluid mechanisms the size of equipment got reduced while they were superior in performance. For example, all the mechanical cranes were replaced with hydraulic ones which were faster, easy to maintain and less bulky while more load could be carried. Kamal Jeet Singh, Director, Ajashy Engineering Sales says, “Today it is unimaginable to think about, construction equipment which doesn’t use hydraulics or pneumatics in one form or other as critical backbone of its functioning.”

Enhancing fuel efficiency of OEMs
“Hydraulic technology is not only multiplying power but also, it’s an option for fuel saving. Load sensing hydraulics has the biggest contribution in saving fuel. There will be fewer loads on engine which will reduce fuel consumption. The hydraulic system with load sensing feature provides significant improvement in fuel efficiency, hydraulic circuit efficiency and service life of the whole system,” says Amol.

A conventional hydraulic system consisting motor, pump and different types of valves develops constant pressure as pump produces constant flow in the system. When oil pressure reaches the set amount of pressure it will automatically bypass the oil to oil tank through relief valve. In the process there will be lot of power loss and heat generation in system. Nowadays, load sensing feature has been employed to make systems smarter and efficient. Load sensing term is associated with pump control in the system. Load sensing circuit consisting of compensator attached to variable piston pump will limit the pressure of the pump at set pressure. When system pressure will rise above set pressure of compensator it will connect system pressure to servo piston in the pump and it will automatically decrease volumetric flow by reducing stroke of the piston.

Solution for on-land and offshore industry
Ajashy Engineering has most of the products which are based on hydraulic whereas few special products for oil and gas sector which use pneumatic power. “Our responsibility towards functioning of equipment increases many folds as many of our equipment are used at extremely remote locations or in oceans and there are no spares or service support available,” says Kamal Jeet.

To drive equipment which requires auxiliary hydraulic power Ajashy Engineering produces both electric and engine operated hydraulic power packs with extension hose reel units. These power packs are employed to use hydraulic power at the sites whether it is on land and on offshore locations. To carry material and manpower (man rider winches) for offshore industry Ajashy Engineering produces hydraulic release shackles and pneumatic winches.

With the rapid change in the technology the fluid mechanics is now being integrated with electronics and mechatronics to develop even more autonomous and efficient products. “Ajashy Engineering is also involved in research to modify its existing systems to hybrid ones to deliver the best to our clients while sticking to the basic principles,” says Kamal Jeet.

Hydraulic system with load sensing feature provides significant improvement in fuel efficiency, hydraulic circuit efficiency and service life of the whole system.
Amol More, Design Engineer, Indian Pneumatic & Hydraulic Co. Pvt Ltd

Today, it is unimaginable to think about construction equipment that doesn’t use hydraulics or pneumatics in one form or the other as critical backbone of its functioning.
Kamal Jeet Singh, Director, Ajashy Engineering Sales