FLUID POWER IN ACTION

Filtration focus fixes faults

Nissan North America, Inc.

By S. Hanawa

I
n 1996 and 97, I and other engineers and tech-
nicians at Nissan Motors of Japan performed
field tests in an attempt to analyze and rectify
oil contamination problems in our assembly
plant that manufactures our Maxima and Blue
Bird models. Final results of the year-long study
showed that installing off-line filtration systems
reduced hydraulic equipment breakdowns by
86.7% and failure of servovalves by 92.4%. We
were so impressed with the results that we now
specify this type of filtration system on all new
hydraulic machinery equipped with servovalves.
Following is a condensed version of a report
summarizing our work and what we learned.

Laying the groundwork The 1998 Maxima GXE, shown, and other models are manufactured at Nissan’s Kanagawa Plant,
Because hydraulic fluid contamination can which has begun widespread use of off-line filtration in conjunction with in-line filtration to re-
come from many different sources, we first set duce hydraulic failures overall, and especially those related to servovalve operation.
out to identify all potential sources of contami-
nation from within our plant before actually be- A recent study machine shop; and weld spatter and fiber scrap
ginning the tests. The standard interval for oil in the assembly shop.
sampling and analysis was every four months for by Nissan Contaminants produced within the hy-
critical equipment, every six months for less- Motors of Japan draulic system — Friction from sliding motions
critical equipment, and annually for general-pur- inherent to hydraulic components eventually
pose equipment. Among the characteristics ana- attributed 85% generates wear particles that get carried through
lyzed in these routine tests were oil color, kinetic of hydraulic a hydraulic system. We found that abraded iron
viscosity, total acid numbers, and water and par- particles and packing material debris became
ticulate contamination. These analyses enabled equipment wedged between sliding surfaces, further aggra-
us to narrow down the sources of contamination failures to vating the abrasive wear. Eventually, the
into five categories: abraded surfaces caused internal leakage in the
Contamination from the workplace envi- contamination. affected components, which degraded perfor-
ronment — We found sources of contamination Better filtration mance and caused operational malfunctions.
surrounding hydraulic equipment to include Water from oil cooler cracks — We found
dirty air, metal particles from nearby machinery,
slashed these that water-cooled heat exchangers in some of
extraneous oil, weld spatter, and sanding by- failures by equipment sometimes developed cracks in the
products. We found hydraulic fluid to be con- nearly 90%. thin walls separating the water from the hydraulic
taminated with sand and iron powder in our oil. This allowed water to enter the hydraulic sys-
forging shop; water, oil, chips, and dust in our tem, which eventually led to emulsified fluid.
Emulsified fluid often caused pump cavitation
Seijiro Hanawa is a senior engineer, Equipment and rust on internal surfaces of components.
Check Engineering Group, Engineering Experi- Contaminants resulting from fluid decom-
mentation Div., Third Engineering Dept., Nis- position — Hydraulic oil is composed of hydro-
san Motor Co., Ltd., Kanagawa, Japan. The off- carbon compounds combined with small
line filtration systems described in this article amounts of oxygen. When heated or continuously
are manufactured by Triple R Corp. For more exposed to light, the fluid becomes more suscep-
information on these systems, Circle 398 on a tible to oxidation, which can lead to sludge for-
reader service card. mation. We found that a gel-like sludge formed at

42 JUNE 1998 / HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS

low temperatures. This sludge often Plotting a strategy A much more effective method
stuck to control valves and caused oil We evaluated the effectiveness of would be to place the suction filter in a
blockages. At higher temperatures, the every component of our hydraulic fil- separate housing along with by-pass
sludge broke up and became fluid-sus- tration systems to determine the best valves, a clogging alarm, and other ac-
pended contamination. course of action. The preliminary work cessories. The bypass prevents cavita-
Contaminants from additive de- to determine the types and sources of tion when the filter becomes clogged,
composition — We had been using a contaminants proved especially valu- and the indirect piping makes it easy to
hydraulic fluid containing the additive able in showing us ways to improve the change filters — without having to shut
zinc zialkyldithiophosphate (ZnDTP) filtration systems. down the machine. Even better yet
in some equipment to reduce wear, ox- Breather-filters — Most reservoirs would be to remove contaminants from
idation, and abrasion. However, we had been fitted with an air breather-fil- the reservoir altogether, which would
discovered that ZnDTP is easily hy- ter to exclude airborne contaminants greatly extend life of the suction filter.
drolyzed, which compromises me- drawn into the reservoir when fluid High-pressure filters — High-pres-
chanical properties of the fluid. More- level decreased. These filters did not sure filters (usually rated 3 to 10 µm)
over, if heated, its anti-oxidation adequately prevent water vapor and had been installed just upstream of most
capabilities deteriorate rapidly, some- small particles from entering the sys- critical control devices, such as servo-
times actually shortening the longev- tem. These filters also became easily valves, as a last-chance protection filter.
ity of the fluid. clogged, causing oil surges or break- We found that this practice must be
Concentrations of all these contami- downs to occur. In most instances 300- done with great care to prevent possible
nants exceeded acceptable limits. As to 500-mesh filters were used. Possible valve damage. Also, these filters must
the contaminants were carried by the solutions would be to use a breather be cleaned regularly to prevent them
hydraulic fluid between sliding sur- with a bladder interface to prevent am- from clogging, which could increase
faces, a variety of problems resulted, bient air from coming in contact with backpressure, reduce response by re-
including abrasion, clogging of narrow fluid. Another possible solution would stricting flow, or both. Again, reducing
passageways, and oxidation. These ac- be to use a finer mesh filter and possi- overall contamination within the entire
tions were responsible for the malfunc- bly incorporate a desiccant-type air system would go a long way toward ex-
tion of many different components, in- drying element with the filter. tending service life of these filters.
cluding pumps, directional-control Suction filters — Pumps are almost Low-pressure filters — Case-drain
valves, servovalves, and actuators. We always protected from contamination filters, bleed-off filters, and return-line
concluded that these contaminants by inlet filters. They usually are in- filters are intended to prevent contami-
caused 85% of hydraulic equipment stalled by fitting a suction strainer di- nants from entering the reservoir. How-
failures. We predicted that keeping hy- rectly into a pipe submerged in the ever, high pressure surges often occur
draulic fluid free of debris would ex- tank. We found this method to be in these circuits, so filters must be care-
tend its longevity and significantly somewhat ineffective because the filter fully sized for each application. Incor-
lower the frequency and severity of easily becomes clogged. This starves porating bypass valves with all return-
breakdowns. To achieve this, much the pump of fluid, which causes cavita- line filters helps alleviate this potential
more aggressive filtration would be tion and subsequent pump breakdown. problem by preventing clogged filters
needed to protect equipment from the This method also requires the machine from causing excessive backpressure in
ravages of fluid contamination. to be shut down to replace filters. Continued on page 90

Acceptable degrees of contamination

Type of Working NAS degree Contamination Water Ferrography
component pressure — concentration — concentration
≤25 µm ≥25 µm WPC
kg/cm3 mg/100 ml — % volume
≤70 10 9 10.0 0.10 ≤50
Vane
≤140 10 8 8.0 0.10 ≤40
pump
≤140 10 8 5.0 0.05 ≤40
Gear ≤70 11 9 10.0 0.10 ≤50
pump ≤70 10 8 8.0 0.10 ≤50

Piston ≤140 9 6 5.0 0.05 ≤30

pump ≤140 8 5 3.0 0.05 ≤25

High-performance
≤210 9 6 5.0 0.05 ≤25
hydraulic motor

Electrohydraulic
≤140 6 5 3.0 0.03 ≤25
servovalve

JUNE 1998 / HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS 43

 AUTOMOTIVE

Triple R America, Inc.

Continued from page 43
return lines. Contaminants in case-drain
lines, in particular, readily accumulate
in the bottom of pump and motor hous-
ings, so it is extremely important to
clean case drain filters regularly to pre-
vent equipment breakdowns. As case-
drain filters become clogged, contami-
nants accumulate even more rapidly,
therefore we prefer to use only about a
50- to 100-µm mesh filter for case drain
lines. So instead of trapping the major-
ity of them in the filters in these lines, Self-contained off-line filtration unit, which aug-
we allow the contaminants to flow into ments in-line filters, has filters piped in parallel to
the reservoir, where they can be re- match flow capacity with application requirements.
moved more readily.
Off-line filtration - Many applica- ● exhibits a large contaminant contain-
tions used an off-line filtration system ment area, and
with its own circulating pump and net- ● is relatively easy to apply and maintain.
work of filters to separate and remove However, as the amount of contami-
contaminants from the reservoir. We nation removed from fluid increases,
found that off-line filtration solved surface filtration becomes much less
many of the problems just described effective. As explained above, the more
with some additional advantages. First, contaminants in the fluid, the more
because they are isolated from the main quickly elements become clogged.
hydraulic circuits, these systems are not This means filter condition must be
subjected to surge pressures and cannot carefully monitored and maintained by
cause cavitation. Also, they are easy to changing elements frequently.
service and maintain, often without Depth filtration uses layered roll-type
having to shut down the machine. rather than pleated elements — much
like a roll of paper towels. Compared to
The plot thickens surface filtration, depth filtration:
It became clear that much finer fil- ● captures a larger percentage of con-
tration throughout our hydraulic sys- taminants
tems was essential to reduce the fre- ● removes free water from hydraulic
quency and severity of equipment oil, and
breakdowns. The problem, however, ● can provide finer filtration to achieve
was that as filters become finer, resis- a higher degree of cleanliness.
tance to flow increases. These flow re- On the other hand, as roll-type ele-
strictions can slow down machine oper- ments capture contaminants, resistance
ation, cause sluggish response, and to flow increases more rapidly than
produce pressure variations that cause with pleated elements. This makes it
operational malfunctions. The chal- even more important that roll-type ele-
lenge then became to implement a fil- ments be kept clean and explains why
tration system that would provide high pleated elements are more widely used
contamination protection without sac- for in-line filtration. However, pressure
rificing system dynamics. differential is not as critical with off-
To find a solution, we carefully eval- line filtration, because off-line filtra-
uated the two generally accepted meth- tion circuits operate at low pressure
ods of filtration for hydraulic equip- with low flow independent of the hy-
ment: surface and depth filtration. draulic system. So excessive pressure
Surface filtration is widely used in the drop across a filter only affects flow in
conventional applications just de- the off-line filtration circuit and not in
scribed and relies on pleated elements the main hydraulic system. We con-
to trap contaminants on the surface area cluded that an off-line filtration system
of the filter media. Among its strong used in conjunction with conventional
points, surface filtration: in-line filters was the most practical
● offers little resistance to flow when method to provide cleaner fluid with
elements are relatively clean minimal restriction to fluid flow.

90 JUNE 1998 / HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS

Results and conclusions tained large amounts of weld spatter the Carrosserie Shop. During the
Combining our findings from past from the robotic welders. Despite our tests, hydraulic fluid contamination
machinery breakdown records with fluid use of suction and return filters, weld was carefully documented, and break-
analysis results allowed us to determine spatter continued to plague the sys- down rates and maintenance problems
the degree of filtration necessary to re- tems. Changes had been made, includ- were closely monitored. Results re-
duce breakdowns. We developed a stan- ing sealing parts of the air breathers vealed that, as a whole, 93.3% of the
dard level of contamination removal for and cylinder heads, but these changes contamination had been removed. Not
each application. Then we implemented failed to halt the ingression of contam- surprisingly, this was accompanied by
a plan to identify and test filtration sys- inants and resultant breakdowns. an 86.7% reduction in machinery
tems that could meet these standards. Because we had been unsuccessful in breakdowns — from 158 in eight
We conducted in-depth field studies keeping weld spatter out of the system, months to only 23, which is less than
in the most troublesome area — our our goal became identifying a purifica- three per month. Of the total 23 mal-
Carrosserie Shop. This is an automated tion system that would remove these functions, only nine were attributed to
area that assembles press-worked pan- contaminants as quickly and effectively servovalves — a reduction of over
els by inserting them into a jig. They as possible. After evaluating all the nec- 92%. The less frequent breakdowns
are then formed by hydraulically pow- essary information, we conducted pre- resulted not only in higher production
ered equipment and welded by robots. liminary tests of three off-line, depth- rates, but greatly reduced mainte-
Almost all of the equipment involved is filtration methods. The most effective nance costs as well.
hydraulic, and the 26 welding robots of these would then be used in an exten- We now routinely install these off-
and auxiliary equipment produce an sive 8-month field test. One system was line types of filtration systems on all
abundance of weld spatter. The Car- only 38.2% effective at removing con- new hydraulic machinery equipped
rosserie Shop suffered 158 breakdowns taminants, another was 41.9%, and a with servovalves before putting into
in an 8-month period — an average of third, provided by Triple R, was 63.7% production. We also found that be-
nearly 20 per month. Of the total, 117 effective. The Triple R system also cause fluid is so much cleaner, we now
of the breakdowns — about 74% — proved to be the most energy efficient. check filter elements on critical equip-
were attributed to lock-ups and other We then incorporated various ment every six months instead of every
malfunctions of servovalves. Triple R filtration systems into the 8- four. And filters in less-critical equip-
Each time we examined failed month field tests by incorporating ment is checked only once a year in-
equipment we found that the fluid con- them into all hydraulic power units in stead of every six months. H&P

JUNE 1998 / HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS 91