HYDRAULIC POWER UNITS
Bulk Handling Technologies designs, manufactures and tests hydraulic power units for any application. Our HPU's are supplied with all BHT Isolation Gate packages and Total Rockbreaking Solutions rockbreakers and are also supplied as stand-alone units to suit any hydraulically drive equipment.
Customer specifications and the application will dictate the level of complexity required for each design and BHT are able to fully tailor the unit to suit any site specific component or design preferences.
Tailor-made Quality
HYDRAULIC POWER UNITS
Large mining equipment often requires large forces, high torques or even the ability for infinitly variable speed control - right down to 0 RPM. Some examples include Bin Isolation Gates, Apron Belt Feeders, Belt Feeders, Stackers / Reclaimers and Rockbreaker Boom Systems. This equipment often uses a Hydraulic Power Unit (HPU) to convert electrical power into hydraulic energy which is then used to drive hydraulic cylinders or hydraulic motors of various designs.
With an emphasis on heavy duty mining and industrial applications, BHT has been designing and manufacturing custom engineered Hydraulic Power Units for more than 10 years and our senior engineers each have over 20 years of experience in hydraulic system design and manufacture.
BHT Hydraulic Power Units are designed and manufactured to suit harsh mining conditions, with a particular emphasis on maintainability and reliability. Using only quality components, our designs meet or exceed Australian Standards, and have been proven in some of the harshest applications and environments.
Working with BHT for the supply of your next Hydraulic Power Unit you will provide the following benefits for your project or site:
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A tailored solution, engineered to suit customer specific site requirements,
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Compliance to customer engineering and manufacturing specifications,
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A consultative design process utilising the latest industry standards and guidelines for hydraulic system designs.
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Provision of 3D models to allow convenient integration into overall plant layouts to ensure accurate interface and tie-in with hydraulic piping and infrastructure.
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Optional design or design-and-supply of inter-connecting piping and hosing from the HPU to the driven machine
DESIGN FOCUS
HYDRAULIC COMPONENTS
Correct sizing of hydraulic components is a critical first step of any HPU design, but equally important is the quality of the components. To ensure reliability and long life, BHT uses only quality, well supported, components in it's HPU builds.
The heart of the Hydraulic Power Unit is the hydraulic pump. Hydraulic pumps come in many forms depending upon the flow requirements and installation arrangement. There are two common types of pumps used in industrial and mining hydraulic systems; gear pumps (or sometimes vane pumps for higher flows) and axial piston pumps. For a simple system, a quality gear pump can be a very cost effective option, whilst more complex systems requiring load sensing or power control features will often benefit from the features available from axial piston pumps.
The enemy of all hydraulic systems is contamination. Particles in hydraulic oil not only accelerate wear on moving parts but can jam precision control valving or destroy seals in cylinders and motors. Particles which are 5 micron or smaller can be caused by rust, internal component wear, ingress from the environment during installation / servicing or even just a simple failure to properly seal the system. In order to remove these particles from the hydraulic oil, filters are installed throughout the circuit. There are three common categories of hydraulic filters; pressure filters (typically installed very close to the pump discharge), return filters (typically installed just prior to the return oil entering the reservoir) and offline filters which separately circulate and clean the oil in a dedicated 'kidney loop' which is independant of the main hydraulic circuit.
Another common point of ingress of contaminates is the tank breather. The breather is required to allow the resorvoir to 'breathe' as the oil level increases or decreases due to changes in temperature or changes in differential stored volumes in hydraulic cylinders as they are driven open and closed in operation. Consequently, the volume of air or 'free-space' within the reservoir above the oil must be able to increase or decrease without pressurising the reservoir. Breather types include simple replaceable paper filter breathers (rarely adequate), servicable dessicant filter breathers (common) which also remove moisture from the exchanged air, right up to full separation bladders (internal or external) which expand when drawing in the atmospheric air but physically maintain a separation of the air from the hydraulic oil at all times.
Finally, all hydraulic systems generate heat. As oil flows around the circuit doing 'work' and overcoming friction and resistances in components, the oil temperature will increase. Depending upon the duty, some intermittently operated or low flow HPUs can successfully radiate excessive heat naturally, without need for a dedicated cooler. However, with continuously operated systems or systems working in extreme environments, an oil cooler is essential to keep the oil temperature below the acceptable maximum temperature of the components or the oil itself. The most common cooler is an air-oil cooler which works exactly like a car's radiator. The oil is pumped through a matrix of channels with a large external surface area, allowing air to be blown by a fan through the matrix. The air cooling matrix fins are cooled by the air allowing heat in the oil to be exchanged before returning to tank.
ASSEMBLY AND TESTING
All BHT Hydraulic Power Units are mechanically assembled by experienced hydraulic fitters while electrical work is completed by licensed electricians at our Canning Vale workshop.
Safety and operating relief valves are set during factory testing and the data recorded. Hydraulic pumps are put through their paces with varying flow and pressures which are recorded to certify the system operating parameters have been correctly met. Furthermore, this provides a baseline record for pump efficiency so future site inspections can compare the pump condition against this baseline and plan pump servicing intervals.
Measurements are recorded digitally using the latest available Parker diagnostic tool as well as calibrated pressure, temperature and flow instruments.