Hydraulic Valve Switching Control for Balanced Maintenance Cycles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hydraulic drive systems for working machines, such as hydraulic excavators, face increased maintenance frequencies due to uneven usage patterns among hydraulic devices, leading to inefficiencies and higher maintenance costs.
Innovation Solution
A hydraulic drive device with a configuration that includes a hydraulic pump, actuators, on-off valves, and directional switching valves, where a controller manages the operation of these components based on recorded history data to balance the usage frequency of all hydraulic devices, ensuring that pressure oil is distributed optimally and that maintenance is synchronized across all components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If maintenance is executed according to deviation of frequency of usage of each hydraulic device, then the number of times of maintenance increases, but availability of the working machine deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically changes the operational parameters (priority levels) of hydraulic devices based on their accumulated usage hours. By adjusting the priority parameters in response to usage conditions, the control section redistributes operational load to balance maintenance intervals across all devices, thereby reducing total maintenance frequency while maintaining availability.
2Productivity
If frequency of usage of each hydraulic device is averaged, then the number of times of maintenance is reduced, but dispersion in frequency of usage of other hydraulic devices such as on-off valve occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors the usage hours of each hydraulic device and feeds this information back to the control section. Based on this feedback, the control section dynamically adjusts the priority levels of devices with lower usage hours, ensuring that all hydraulic devices including on-off valves achieve balanced usage frequencies. This closed-loop control prevents dispersion in usage frequency across different device types.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a hydraulic drive device for a working machine with which a number of times of maintenance can be reduced. A controller (20) opens a first on-off valve (25a), closes a second on-off valve (25b), switches a first directional switching valve (30a) to a first position (A), and switches a second directional switching valve (30b) to a third position (C), thereby pressure oil from a hydraulic pump (1a) is supplied from the first on-off valve to an actuator (5a) through the first directional switching valve. When history data of the first on-off valve is determined to satisfy a prescribed condition, the controller closes the first on-off valve, opens the second on-off valve, switches the first directional switching valve to a second position (B), and switches the second directional switching valve to a fourth position (D), thereby pressure oil from the hydraulic pump is supplied from the second on-off valve to the actuator through the second directional switching valve. For example, the controller determines that the prescribed condition is satisfied when an operation number of times of the first on-off valve reaches a first prescribed value.