How clean are your hoses? Because, getting your hose cleaning regime sorted is one of the easiest ways to reduce disruptive downtime, prolong the life of your equipment and save money. Here’s how to win-win-win …
Cleaning hoses thoroughly and regularly removes contaminants which can damage your equipment, impact performance, and reduce uptime.
Makes sense when you consider that hydraulic systems need to operate with precision. Think about how quickly contaminated fluid can irreversibly damage components. Why risk costly damage? Or incur the extra cost of changing hydraulic oil too frequently?
Cleaning hoses effectively is easier now, given the range of cleaning products and equipment available in today’s market. It offers some great cost benefits too. This is why we’re supporting more and more customers with cleaning products and advising on cleaning approaches.
Get started on cleaning methods for hydraulic hose assemblies:
Air blow:
Air blow is a common industry practice. It’s fast and simple and easily integrated into a production line. But, where it does blow out larger bits of debris it doesn’t remove all the dust and dirt particles. These remaining particles, although small, can do as much damage as the ones you’re removing.
Fluid flushing:
Fluid flushing is a method where a cleaning fluid, not always compatible with hydraulic oil, passes through to remove contaminants from inside the hose. This method is time consuming and expensive. Plus, unless the hoses are thoroughly dried, it leaves behind some contaminant in the hose. Make sure you consider:- the price of the rig, cost of the fluid, the regularity of changing the dirty fluid and the time taken to connect hoses to the rig. It’s simply not practical for OEM work.
Projectiles:
The use of foam projectiles is gaining in popularity because it is one of the most effective methods of cleaning all your hose assemblies. Special hand-held/bench-top launchers help ensure no pellets are left behind. The projectiles, which are 20%-30% larger than the inside diameter of the hoses, are shot through the hose via clean dry air. Projectiles are easy to integrate into the hose assembly process, or even a production line. And, if you follow some very simple steps extremely high levels of cleanliness can be achieved, for a minimal investment, quickly and efficiently.
Once cleaned we recommend capping the hoses immediately to stop any dirt ingress using heat shrink caps that can’t fall off!
Want cleaner hoses? We can get it sorted call 0121 553 5048 or contact Paul@allswageuk.co.uk
