Reducing Hydraulic System Temperatures Deborah Hays Dmax Ltd. ABSTRACT The predictive technology team at DMAX, Ltd.

consists of a mechanical technician and an electrical technician. We primarily use the IR camera to run predictive routes on electrica l panels, buss plugs, and motors. Occasionally, we are called to the plant floor to help troubleshoot a pr oblem. This paper discusses a trouble call on a hydraulic system that supports one of our larger machines. INTRODUCTION DMAX, Ltd. builds the Duramax Diesel engine for use in General Motors heavy duty trucks. At our facility the engine block, head, crank, and connecting rod are machined. These parts are used in our assembly area where we build and test the engine. The problem occurred on a cylinder block lin e transfer machine that is 54 x 30 consisting of 5 cutting stations, 2 rotate stations, a gage station, check station and 5 idle stations. Most of the cutting stations have a left and right side. Each cutting station ei ther bores, chamfers, or mills the cylinder block. After each station finishes a cycle, the machine then transfers the cylinder block to the next station. Hydraulic cylinders are used to transfer the blocks as well as rotate t hem and clamp the part when it is being machined. Hydraulic cylinders are also used in several stations to assi st the large cutting heads as they rise and lower. This hydraulic system has a 600 liter reservoir of hydrauli c fluid. The OEM has stated that the maximum system temperature should be no higher than 120F (49C) when runni ng at a normal pressure of 1200 psig. The system has a high temperature fault that is set at 11 7F (47C). The OEM used yellow zinc dichromate heavy walled steel tubing to distribute the hydraulic flu id to the desired components on the machine. There are several supply and return lines running to each station a s well as to the large cylinders used to transfer the blocks as they are machined. PROBLEM Electricians from the cylinder block line had been called to this operation nume rous times to reset high temperature faults on the hydraulic system. The electricians asked the mechanics to check the system for any abnormalities. All pressures and flows were found to be within OEM specifica tion. The electricians also wanted to verify that the actual temperature in the hydraulic system matched the thermal couple reading. We checked the temperature using our FLIR P65 and determined that the thermal coupl es where operating correctly (Fig. 1). The electricians did not want to spend their day resetting t emperature faults. We needed a solution.

Figure 1. Thermogram/photo pair showing hydraulic system. InfraMation 2008 Proceedings ITC 126 A 2008-05-14

TEMPORARY FIX The electricians were advised not to adjust the temperature upper limit to elimi nate the fault. Running the hydraulic unit with excessive heat would cause the hydraulic oil to deteriorate at a rapid rate possibly causing failures to the hydraulic pump, cylinders or valves. The machine was needed to m eet production schedules so there was little time for a formal root cause analysis. We needed a quick sol ution or what we like to call a band-aid (Fig 2.). Figure 2. The fastest and easiest way to cool something down, THE FAN! ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS As we analyzed the root cause it was discovered that the hydraulic system was sl ightly undersized for this particular application. An additional gage station had been added to the machine which increased the load on the system. A second contributing factor was the temperature inside the plant on this summer day. The DMAX plant has a chiller system that is designed to keep the plant at a constant 76F. The cylinder block line can reach the 90F mark in the middle of summer. It was decided not to spend the m oney to upsize the hydraulic system that worked fine 10 months out of the year. The purchase of an additional chiller unit was also not approved. Even the fan was not keeping the unit as cool as it needed to be and temperature faults quickly returned. We needed an inexpensive permanent solution. SOLUTION We remembered our IR level I class. Instructors Bernie Lyon and Bob Rogers were telling the class about a presentation at the 2004 InfraMation conference. An electrician from a Coors Bre wing plant was having problems with a stainless steel motor over heating. He had created an IR route t o check it but found it difficult to find the taped spot during his route. He had placed electrical tape on the mo tor due to the reflectivity of the stainless steel and he decided to paint the entire motor so the routes could go faster. Much to his surprise, this stopped the motor from over heating by allowing the heat to dissipate inste ad of being trapped in by the reflective steel. We thought if it can work on a stainless steel motor it could work on yellow zinc dichromate tubing. Remembering E+R+T=1 and low emissivity, we put electrical tape on two of the hydraulic lines and checked the temperature difference between the taped surface and the steel surfa ce (Fig. 3). We found a 4 degree C temperature change and we decided to paint the tubing in the hopes it w ould radiate enough heat to keep the unit running below the OEM set point year round (Fig. 4). InfraMation 2008 Proceedings ITC 126 A 2008-05-14

REFLECTIVITY

Object Parameter Value Emissivity 0.96 Object Distance 1.9 m Reflected Temperature 22.4 C Label Value Sp1 36.9 C Sp2 33.1 C Sp3 35.0 C Sp4 31.8 C Dt1: [ana.Sp1.temp] [ana.Sp2.temp] 3.7 C Dt2: [ana.Sp3.temp] [ana.Sp4.temp] 3.3 C Figure 3. Thermogram/photo/chart showing reflectivity of steel tubing. RESULTS Figure 4. Photo before and after painting. Twelve cans of flat white spray paint and a week later, we reshot the hydraulic unit. The overall system temperature went from 117F to 107F. We were able to reduce system temperature by 1 0F, which was enough to keep the unit running even on the hottest days (Fig. 5). InfraMation 2008 Proceedings ITC 126 A 2008-05-14

Figure 5. Thermograms before and after painting hydraulic lines. SUMMARY After a week of painting, we realized this operation had several more feet of hy draulic tubing than we had first realized. We believe this is why we were able to achieve a ten degree temperatur e reduction. We have since changed the new equipment specification and require any future purchases of hydr aulic systems to have the hydraulic lines painted flat white. Ten degrees F may not sound like much, but s ometimes it is just enough. REFERENCES Voitl, John C.; Predictive Maintenance Technician; Coors Brewing Company; 2004 I nfraMation Conference; October 2004 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank the Infrared Training Center and specifically instruct ors Bernie Lyon and Bob Rogers. We would also like to thank DMAX Ltd. maintenance personnel and manageme nt for allowing us to experiment with this operation. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Deborah Hays is a Level II Thermographer and has been a mechanical service techn ician for the last 15 years. She has been assigned as a predictive technologies technician for the pas t 5 years. She utilizes infrared, vibration analysis, motor circuit analysis, and ultrasound technologie s at her plant. InfraMation 2008 Proceedings ITC 126 A 2008-05-14