The automation of hydraulic mobile machinery, such as excavators, requires high performance control solutions. In hydraulics, this means fast and accurate force, velocity and position control of hydraulic cylinder. Especially the force control is known to be difficult with traditional servo valves. Fast digital hydraulic valves together with modern control solutions can overcome this problem. This paper uses a new force control solution, which is based on the fast digital hydraulic valves and model based control principle. The control solution is applied in a heavy axis mimicking dynamics of mobile machine booms. Experimental results show good force, velocity and position tracking performance with varying load masses. The slow velocity performance is also much improved when compared to the earlier results.

Main purpose of the paper is to present high-response hydraulic linear drive, which is controlled with new digital piezo valve and where the new position transducer is integrated as a part of hydraulic cylinder. Hydraulic digital piezo valve with main static and dynamic characteristics as well as its functionality is presented in detail. The main static and dynamic characteristics of dygital piezo valve which influence directly on the linear drive performance are high resolution of the volume flow rate and high resposne of the valve. Beside valve characteristics the new integrated position transducer, the digital controller and control method, presented in the paper, have major impact on linear drive preformance. At the end of the paper the step response and position resolution of the hydraulic linear drive controlled with the new digital valve is compared with the results of reference hydraulic drive controlled with high response proportional valve.

Digital hydraulics is one of promising technologies having a huge potential to significantly improve energy efficiency in the fluid power industry. In this paper, we present a digital hydraulics solution for mobile market with a large ammount of energy usage by hydraulic components and systems. Specifically, a novel hydraulic architecture, Multiplex Digital Valve (MDV) system that employs digital valves to meet multiple service pressure/flow requirement in off highway vehicles, is introduced. With MDV being integrated in an execavator, signficant hydraulic power saving have been validated compared to the baseline machine with the negative flow control (NFC) architecture. In addition, considering noise is still a critical hurdle for digital hydraulics to be adoped, we develop several noise reduction methods that have been evaluated in simulation environment and implemented in the above MDV. The sound pressure measured from the retrofitted MDV solution with the NVH treatment in the excavator has been improved signficantly over the untreated system such that it is nearly comparable to the baseline machine. The paper also briefly presents the sound quality study for better understanding of human perception and acceptance to nonconventional sound.

The awareness and concern of our environment together with legislation have set more and more tightening demands for energy efficiency of non-road mobile machinery(NRMM). Integrated electro- hydraulic energy converter (IEHEC) has been developed in Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) /1/. The elimination of resistance flow, and the recuperation of energy makes it very efficient alternative. The difficulties of IEHEC machine to step to the market has been the requirement of one IEHEC machine per one actuator. The idea is to switch IEHEC between two actuators of log crane using fast on/off valves. The control system architecture is introduced. The system has been simulated in co-simulation using Simulink/Mevea. The simulated responses of pumpcontrolled system is compared to the responses of the conventional valve-controlled system.

This paper deals with the application of speed variable pumps in industrial hydraulic systems. The benefit of the natural feedback of the load torque is investigated for the issue of condition monitoring as the development of losses can be taken as evidence of faults. A new approach is proposed to improve the fault detection capabilities by tracking the changes via machine learning techniques. The presented algorithm is an art of adaptive modeling of the torque balance over a range of steady operation in fault free behavior. The aim thereby is to form a numeric reference with acceptable accuracy of the unit used in particular, taking into consideration the manufacturing tolerances and other operation conditions differences. The learned model gives baseline for identification of major possible abnormalities and offers a fundament for fault isolation by continuously estimating and analyzing the deviations.

Poppet valves are popular components of hydraulic systems, but they sometimes induce vibration in these systems. In particular, the vibration phenomenon of a poppet valve in a cavitation state is a troublesome problem in hydraulic systems, because the dynamic effects of cavitation on the poppet valve are difficult to predict. In this research, we investigated the vibration phenomenon of the poppet valve in the cavitation state in a visualization experiment and numerical simulation. We found in numerical simulation that it is possible to predict the tendency of the vibration by assuming that the bulk modulus of hydraulic oil is affected by the ratio of cavitation bubbles mixed in the oil. Additionally, we proposed a simple method of estimating the quantity of cavitation bubbles through visualization experiments and image processing. We then improved the prediction accuracy of the poppet valve behavior by applying the bubble mixing ratio obtained using the method in the numerical simulation model. The described methods not only avoid the sensor effect on the flow field but also save the additional measurement cost, and they are easy to apply to hydraulics systems.

Electro-hydraulic proportional flow valves are widely used in hydraulic industry. There are several different structures and working principles. However, flow valves based on the existing principles usually have some shortcomings such as the complexity of the system and additional energy losses. A concept for a two-stage poppet flow valve with pilot pressure drop – pilot spool opening compensation is presented, and the linear relationship between the pilot stage and main stage, the semi-empirical flow equation are used in the electronic flow controller. To achieve the accurate control of the outlet flow, the actual input voltage of the pilot spool valve is regulated according to the actual pilot pressure drop, the desired flow rate and the given input voltage. The results show that the pilot pressure drop – pilot spool opening compensation method is feasible, and the proposed proportional flow control valve with this compensation method has a good static and dynamic performance.

The dynamic of cavitation in hydraulic components cannot be computed accurately yet and therefore cavitation is hard to predict. The cavitation phenomenon can be divided in three sub-phenomenona: Pseudo-cavitation, Gas-cavitation and Vapour-cavitation. Pseudo-cavitation discribes the enlargement of an air bubble due to a pressure drop. Gas-cavitation refers to bubble growth which is driven by diffusion of dissolved air from the surrounding fluid into the bubble, when the solubility of air in the fluid is lowered by a pressure drop. Vapor-cavitation is the evaporation of the liquid phase on the bubble surface. Usually all three sub-phenomenona occur simultaneously when the pressure decreases and are summarised as cavitation in general. To implement the physics of gas-cavitation in a dynamic mathematical model it is necessary to know the diffusion coefficient of air in the hydraulic liquid and the maximum amount of air which can be dissolved in the liquid. The calculation can be accomplished by using the Bunsen coefficient. In this paper both coefficients for three different hydraulic oils are calculated based on experimental results.

Fuel cost represents a significant operating expense for owners and fleet managers of hydraulic off-highway vehicles. Further, the upcoming Tier IV compliance for off-highway applications will create further expense for after-treatment and cooling. Solutions that help address these factors motivate fleet operators to consider and pursue more fuelefficient hydraulic energy recovery systems. Electrical hybridization schemes are typically complex, expensive, and often do not satisfy customer payback expectations. This paper presents a hydraulic energy recovery architecture to realize energy recovery and utilization through a hydraulic hydro-mechanical transformer. The proposed system can significantly reduce hydraulic metering losses and recover energy from multiple services. The transformer enables recovered energy to be stored in a high-pressure accumulator, maximizing energy density. It can also provide system power management, potentially allowing for engine downsizing. A hydraulic test stand is used in the development of the transformer system. The test stand is easily adaptable to simulate transformer operations on an excavator by enabling selected mode valves. The transformer’s basic operations include shaft speed control, pressure transformation control, and output flow control. This paper presents the test results of the transformer’s basic operations on the test stand, which will enable a transformer’s full function on an excavator.

This contribution presents an operating strategy for a novel valve structure for mobile machines’ working hydraulics which combines the flexibility and energetic benefits of individual metering with the functionality of common primary pressure compensation (IPC). The aim is to set up a system that uses a minimal amount of sensors and simple control algorithms. A control strategy theoretically described in /1/ is modified to facilitate the practical implementation on a mini excavator implement as a test rig. This test rig consists only of components that are currently available off-the-shelf to show that it is possible to develop an individual metering system under these economic restrictions. The novel is more energy efficient than common flow sharing systems but provides the same functionality. The control algorithm is experimentally evaluated in terms of functionality and energy consumption. Simulations show potential for further improvements.