Designing Mobile Hydraulic Piping Systems for Maintainability

Sooner or later the proper operation of the piping in a mobile hydraulic system ceases or performance decreases to an unprofitable level due to failure, depreciation or wear out of piece parts. Design considerations that are conducive to getting a machine back into operation in the minimum of time and with minimum effort after a problem occurs are discussed. Among other items this includes keeping piping part numbers to a minimum for a machine or machine family, best access to least reliable parts, ability to assemble and disassemble with standard hand tools, wrench clearance, fastener tightening torque requirements, and ease of adapting analytical equipment to reduce troubleshooting time.