840 HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS Refrigeration units are used in cases where the temperature of oil has to be controlled in a very limited range, and especially where ambient temperatures are high. These units are compact and highly efficient. They may be either separate units with inlet and outlet connections for circulation of oil or the refrigerant may be circu- lated through cooling coils immersed inside the reservoir. HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS Thé hydraulic elements discussed earlier are deployed in build- ing systems to achieve a variety of functions, effective at a time or otherwise and of varying degree of complexity. A system design is primarily based on the desired functions in a logical sequence. Besides it is an essential requirement that the approach be so as to provide an economical proposition from the point of view of utiliza- tion of minimum number of components and conservation of energy, without however affecting the reliability of operation. Hydraulic power supply The fundamental requirement of a system is a suitable pressure supply or a power pack as is generally referred to. A powerpack may be a simple pump-motor unit with a reservoir or a package consisting of the entire system. Power pack generally implies a source of supply of pressurized fluid ina condition acceptable to the drive and control circuitry. It consists essentially of a reservoir, a pump and its drive, a strainer at the pump inlet, a relief valve, a pressure gauge with shut-off and filter/filters for the system fluid and a manifold block with pressure outlet/outlets, return and drain- line connections. The pump is either mounted within the reservoir or on the top cover. Both the methods are widely practised. The former method provides better suction conditions for the pump and suppression of pump noise to some extent. The latter arrangement as recommended by the JIC and other standards is however consi- dered a better practice from the point of ease of servicing. RESERVOIRS These are essentially storage tanks for the system fluid, al- though they may often facilitate mounting of atleast a part of the hydraulic system. Reservoirs are to be generally kept separated from the machine actual for reasons of isolation of thermal condi- tions and ease of servicing. Points to be reckoned in designing a reservoir are:HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS S41 i) sealing of fluid chamber from external source of conta- mination; ii) sizing of the reservoir a) to hold adequate volume of fluid reckoning the amount of oil that may drain back from the system either during a portion of the cycle or at the time of servicing. b) to have sufficient radiating area for dissipating the heat generated in the system so that the fluid temp- erature in the tank does not exceed 60°C. A separate cooler may have to be included if the tank tends to be too large. : iii) the bottom of the reservoir is to be kept 120 to 200 mm above the ground level to facilitate draining, cleaning, transportation and improved heat dissipation, iv) drain plug or some other means for draining almost the entire content of oil, v) convenient access for cleaning the inside of reservoirs~cleanout openings are to be provided in case of reservoirs with permanently fitted top covers, vi) provision of a breather hole with a filter, vii) provision of a filler cup with wiremesh screen, viii) fluid level indicator showing the minimum and. max- imum permissible levels of the fluid in the reservoirs, ix) _ inside of the reservoir to be painted with an oil resistant paint and x) baffle plates to separate pump suction and return lines. Reservoirs are generally sized to hold 3 to 5 times the pump discharge per minute. Tanks are generally rectangular in shape. Too shallow a reservoir does not provide enough surface area for heat dissipation and too deep and narrow a tank does not provide enough surface for proper separation of entrained air bubbles or foam. Pumps are sometimes mounted at the base of the reservoir on a suitable extension to provide positive suction head due to the col- umn of oil in the reservoir. Heaters and coolers to maintain the fluid temperature within the maximum permissible limits are required to be provided based on the heat generation in the system, the ambient temperature , Tange (at the work-site) and dissipation through the tank walls. Thermostat controllers to this effect.if essential, and temperature indicators are to be provided.342 HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS Pressure gauges with snubbers and gauge shut off valves are to be provided at a suitable location with respect to the relief valve and operator’s position. The fluid in the reservoir is required to be cleaned prior to entry into the system to a level of contamination acceptable for satisfac- tory functioning of the circuit. Location of filters, filtration capacity, flow and pressure ratings and dirt holding capacity of filter elements are to be reckoned while providing filtration. There are various possible locations for a filter in a hydraulic circuit (Table 363 ). The general: practice in most of the hydraulic circuits for machine tools is to provide a strainer at the pump inlet. A 125 um (equivalent of 120 mesh) rating for strainers is considered a good practice. The strainers need to be of adequate capacity, not creating more than 0.15 kgflcm? pressure drop at the prevailing flow rate. Apart from a strainer, either a pressure line filter or return line filter of 30-40 ym absolute rating is adequate for most of the common applications. However, when critical components like servovalves are used, a pressure line filter of suitable micron rating immediately behind the valve is essential. Servo drive manufacturers recommend the use of a filter rated at 25 ym absolute for the purpose. These filters protecting the servo equipment may not necessarily clean up the entire system. A suitable pressure line prefilter is generally included in these systems (Fig 292 ). Use of prefilter is also an economical proposition since the filters protecting servovalves are recommended to be without by pass valves and preferably being capable of withstanding a pressure differential equal to the full system pressure. These costly filter elements'do therefore need to be protected from dirt. f——_———eHYDRAULIC SYSTEMS 843 Table 363 Location of filter Individual pressure feed line