8/25/2019 Hydraulic symbology 205 – hydraulic pumps

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Hydraulic symbology 205 – hydraulic pumps

By Josh Cosford | July 2, 2019

The base symbol for the hydraulic pump (Figure 1) is actually quite simple. It starts with the standard circle
and a directional arrow pointing out one end from within that circle. The solid- lled triangle makes this a
hydraulic pump while pneumatic pumps (and most pneumatic symbols) are outlines only. There exist no
other options for this particular pump symbol, which can be accurately described as a xed displacement,
unidirectional hydraulic pump.

It’s rare to see a pump in any orientation but North when reading schematics, and they are often paired
below to a line terminating into the reservoir symbol, which I show just once. If multiple components such as
lters, ball valves, accessories or even other pumps are used, the tank line can be widened as needed. Other
designers prefer to show every tank line terminate into the same small symbol, while others will place a tank
symbol right at every component requiring it, just is done in electrics with the ground symbol.

Figure 1. Hydraulic pump symbology

Unfortunately, and except for rare circumstances, there are no symbology di erences between the type of
pumps available. The symbols for a gear pump, a vane pump, a piston pump or any other type of physical

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con guration does not carry with it any symbolic di erence, nor does it matter as you’ll nd out by the end of
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this. 

The second pump is not much di erent from the rst, with the exception of the second black directional
triangle, which informs us this pump can expel uid from what would otherwise be the suction port. This is
the symbol for a bi-rotational pump, which is rare outside of advanced mobile machinery, especially in the
xed displacement version as shown. Although a series of check valves could allow both ports to become
either the tank or pressure lines, depending upon the direction of rotation, this is still a rare concept.

The third symbol in Figure 1 illustrates the very simpli ed version of the variable displacement, pressure
compensated, unidirectional hydraulic pump. It includes the variable arrow across the entire symbol,
explaining that the pump displacement can be modi ed. To the left is a smaller arrow, and as you may have
picked up on from earlier symbol articles, it tells us the pump displacement varies automatically with
pressure compensation. As a fan of ISO 1219 symbology, I don’t nd this symbol visually pleasing, concise as
it is.

My favourite symbol to express the pressure compensated pump is the smaller of the two symbols in Figure
2. This is a slightly more detailed example of the symbol I depicted in Hydraulic Symbology 101, and I’ve
added colour to help with the explanation. Don’t worry about the scary looking object to the right, we’ll get to
that shortly.

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Figure 2. Pressure compensated hyraulic pump

For this particular symbol of the pressure compensated pump, the shaft sticks out to the right, which can be
attached to the square of a combustion engine prime mover symbol or the circular symbol of an electric
motor. The semicircular arrow shows us the shaft rotates clockwise, or to the right since rotation direction is
always observed from the vantage point of the shaft end.

The variable arrow bisects the pump symbol and of course tells us the pump is adjustable displacement. The
method of displacement control is de ned by the compound symbol attached to the pump’s left. Under the
long rectangle is a spring with a variability arrow, which represents the pressure compensator spring, itself
semi-enclosed and attached to the bottom of the pump’s variable arrow. Opposite the spring is a triangular
input for pilot pressure, and this juxtaposition is intentional.

The orange pilot signal is taken directly from the red system pressure line exiting the pump, with the dashed
orange line con rming it is indeed pilot energy. The spring setting ghts with pilot pressure to in nitely and
smoothly adjust the ow rate to match downstream pressure drop equal to the compensator setting. For

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example, if the setting is 3,000 psi, any downstream combination of load and ow-related pressure below
 psi will see the spring maintain full displacement of the swashplate, producing full pump ow.
3,000 

As downstream pressure rises, pilot energy acts upon the (undepicted) control piston, reducing ow until
downstream load and ow-related pressure equalizes to 3,000 psi. Should downstream pressure continue to
rise, the control piston being pushed on by orange pilot energy can reduce the swashplate angle to near
zero, where the only ow is that which is being absorbed through lubrication and leakage. The leakage is lost
through the blue dashed line going to tank, which may or may not be drawn together with the green suction
line which obviously initiates at the reservoir.

Moving along to the scary looking thing on the right, we have here the detailed breakdown of the variable
displacement, pressure compensated, load-sensing, unidirectional hydraulic pump. You’ve likely seen this
symbol before because the manufacturers prefer to show this level of detail, especially to di erentiate
advanced controls options like remoted compensation or horsepower control. This “load-sensing pump” will
make sense to you shortly. I’ll warn that it will take some time and e ort to understand this symbol as you
methodically work through the rest of this article.

Starting with the pump (a), it has the diagonal variability arrow bisecting the circle and is attached to the rod
ends of two cylinders. Cylinder (b) is the bias piston meant to force the pump to full displacement whenever
possible, a task made easier by spring pushing the piston forward. Some pumps make do with only a strong
spring, but this example is balanced with pilot energy. A xed on the right is a tiny object with a variable
arrow, which can be adjusted to move left or right within the cylinder. Not all pumps have this additional
component, which is the minimum volume stop, preventing the bias piston from retracting fully, which
subsequently prevents fully standby of the pump.

If you’re familiar with cylinder symbols, you’ll see that (c) also looks like a single acting cylinder with a stroke
adjustor at the cap side. This is the control piston, which will always be a larger bore diameter than the bias
piston. The control piston’s stroke adjustment is called the maximum volume stop and is used to modify the
maximum displacement of the pump, convenient when you need a displacement between the two sizes
available for the chosen pump. The two “cylinders” are attached by their rods to each other, and as one
extends the other must retract and vice versa, and I’ll explain shortly why and how their battle develops.

Because all load sensing pumps must be pressure compensated, I’ll start with (d), which is the pressure
compensator. Although it looks di erent, it is essentially a relief valve governing the control piston (c). It’s
shown in its neutral condition, where it bleeds the chamber of the control piston (c) through ori ce (e), ori ce
(f), and also through the other compensator (g) where it can choose any ow path directly to tank. Regardless
of its ow path, pilot energy inside the control piston (c) is zero, so it loses the battle with the bias piston (b)
and the pump is on full displacement pump at its highest rate.

The load sense compensator (g) looks much the same as the pressure compensator (d) and is similar in
function except where it takes pilot energy and what it does with it afterward. As with the pressure
compensator symbol (d), it is a 3-way, 2-position valve that is spring-o set with adjustable pressure settings
for both. Each is supplemented with the parallel lines above and below both positional envelopes, and these
lines tell us the valve is in nitely variable between the two positions.

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The variable ori ce at (j) could be any ow control, lever valve or proportional valve used to adjust ow (which
 backpressure when reduced) in the red system pressure line starting at the pump. You can see the
creates 
node just after the pump outlet that combines system pressure with pilot lines supplying the bias piston and
both compensators. Let’s rst take the load sense compensator (g) out of the picture and describe the
pressure compensator (d) and what occurs during operation.

When the pump res up, and assuming all downstream directional valves are closed, the spring inside the
bias piston (b) fully strokes the pump to max displacement. This immediately creates pressure in the work
and pilot lines as uid lls the plumbing with no exit strategy, and this rise in pressure at the pilot line at (d)
forces the pressure compensator to shift to the right. The second pilot line attached to the top of
compensator (d) allows pilot energy to enter through line (i) where it lls the control piston (c) rapidly.
Because the control piston is larger bore than the bias piston, it wins the ght and moves the pump’s variable
arrow to reduce displacement until the only ow is what is required to overcome leakage. The pump is on
“standby.”

Now when a downstream directional valve is opened, a ow path is created that drops system pressure to
below the setting of the (d) compensator, and it immediately succumbs to spring pressure and snaps back to
near its neutral setting, opening the drain lines once again to tank. The ori ces (e) and (f) dampen the motion
of the compensator, preventing rapid oscillations, but the ori ce also prevents pressure spikes into the
pump’s case. They also ensure that pressure doesn’t decay from the control piston (c) when system pressure
degrades rapidly for fractions of a second. Flow from the pump will be balanced by the opposing bias and
control pistons to match downstream pressure drop at exactly the pressure compensator setting.

Finally, we look at the operation of the load sense compensator (g) shown on top. It also receives a pilot
signal directly from the pump outlet, but you’ll see that it also gets a competing signal from the work line after
the metering ori ce. The pressure signal at (g) compares the combined e ort of the spring value and the
load-sense pilot signal just before (h). The setting of the pressure compensator (d) is much higher than the
setting of the load sense compensator (g), which is set to create reasonable pressure drop across (j). If the (d)
compensator is set to 3,000 psi, it’ll only see this pressure on standby or max load pressure, while the (g)
compensator might be set to 300 psi, where it measures pressure drop across (j) valve.

Typically a load sense circuit will have multiple ori ces in a load sense network all feeding back a pilot signal
to the load sense compensator (g), where it picks the highest pressure signal and meters the pump’s ow to
match that pressure di erential and provides just enough ow to satisfy the desired ow rate at the desired
work pressure plus the pressure of the load sense compensator’s spring value. For example, if load pressure
is 1,000 psi, the pump will hold pressure at 1,300 psi, providing the extra 300 psi just to create ow across
the metering valve (j).

This symbol shows you that no matter the initial feeling of complexity, breaking down any schematic
thoughtfully reveals its purpose of design. I fell in love with hydraulics when I learned about the load sensing
concept. That just using columns of uid pressure to create an e cient supply and demand scenario to
satisfy many downstream actuators with essentially the exact ow and pressure they need for the job, and
little more, I found exhilarating.

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