“Every time I unload my cylinder, there is a loud bang.” Press builders have been calling us with this line for as long as I can remember. If the frame, the guides, and the rest of the mechanics check out, the bang…

When I run training sessions on motor circuits, I put up one chart before anything else. It splits motor control into two parts: moving and stopping. In my experience, moving is about 10% of the problem. Stopping is the other 90%. Most…

A design engineer at a mining equipment maker called me about a prototype machine. The oil around the unloading valve was overheating so fast that within five minutes, you couldn’t touch it. Now and then, the fan motor stopped as well. The…

Thirty machines were already on the road before we found out the problem was a Pilot Operated check valve doing a counterbalance valve’s job. A customer of ours in North India builds sewer suction cum jetting machines. On a new model, the…

Two (amongst many) forklift makers buy relief valves from us for the same job. Both use them to protect attachments, and in this case, a bale clamp attachment. The system flow is at about 35 lpm and 210 bar. One OE fits…

If you are evaluating a pilot-operated relief cartridge for a high-flow mobile hydraulic system, the numbers that matter are flow capacity, maximum pressure, and the pressure rise between cracking and full flow. Our AR Series compact relief cartridges were built around exactly…

One day, I got a frantic call from a customer along with a video attachment. A man lift was lowering its boom through a counterbalance valve (also called an overcenter valve), and the boom bounced up and down, a foot to a…