Why is hydraulic contamination still an issue?

I’ve got contamination on the brain.

In the past couple of weeks, I have edited several articles focused on the perils of contamination and how to prevent it. In our May issue, we talk about the importance of contamination control in agricultural machinery. We also talk industrial contamination control in our June issue, where we tackle both pneumatic and hydraulic concerns.

And just the other day, I moderated a webinar with Josh Cosford about oil analysis and contamination monitoring. This webinar was well-attended and had some of the best questions and interactions of any recent webinars I’ve moderated.

It has been said since I started in this industry 20 years ago that contamination is the cause of most hydraulic failures — between 70% and 90%. These numbers never seem to change, and although everyone claims to be big proponents of proper filtration and doing all the right things to keep your hydraulic fluid flowing freely and cleanly, we still have a problem.

Some say that the manufacturers themselves are to blame due to subpar filtration technologies. Others say it’s the designers, building systems that don’t consider proper filtration and expose critical components to risk. And still others say it’s an education problem, that there are way too many technicians out there not trained in fluid power design and maintenance.

Pointing fingers at one of these issues is not going to solve any problems here, unfortunately. Knowing that contamination has been a problem since long before I entered the industry, no matter what we do, it seems it may continue as long as air and oil are flowing.

So what can we do? We can keep advocating for good designs. There are so many high-tech filtration and sealing components out there — quality seals, filtration, and all the technologies that keep particles, water, air, and other contaminants at bay. Avoid cheaper filters from an online retail shop. Instead, work with your local distributor on the best choice from any number of reputable filter manufacturers. We also must keep educating the industry that quality should always come before cost, and that good design keeps machines running reliably longer.

And like us here at Fluid Power World, we all need to keep pushing this knowledge out there. If just one new fluid power designer or technician comes across these three pieces of contamination content I mentioned above, we’ve made a difference. So keep choosing better quality and keep advocating for better design. It’s the only way to prevent contamination-related failures.