Benchmarking the performance of hydrostatic pumps

Abstract

In search for sustainable and clean solutions, the hydraulic industry is forced to develop more efficient alternatives to traditional systems. For mobile applications, battery driven machines are becoming an essential solution. But, electric driven hydraulic systems set completely different demands than classical systems. Since batteries are expensive and bulky, it is no longer acceptable that the majority of the battery stored energy is lost in the hydraulic system.

One of the promising solutions for efficiency increase is the application of electrohydraulic actuators (EHAs). Aside from all the inherent control advantages, EHAs deliver energy to each load on demand. This makes them much more efficient than current valve controlled systems, at least in principle. In practice, EHAs require both low and high-speed operation of pumps. Almost all hydrostatic pumps have high friction losses, strong wear and often also high volumetric losses at speeds below 500 rpm. Additionally, it is obvious that the pumps must have the highest efficiency possible.

Given these constraints and demands it is understandable that information is needed about the performance of pumps and motors. In the past years, Innas has measured and tested several positive displacement machines and published a comprehensive report about these measurements. This paper will analyse the outcome of the test results, with a special focus on the application in EHAs.