Reduce Hydraulic Accumulator Cost with Back-Up Gas Bottles

Tag : Hydraulic Power Units


Walt Flippo is Senior Application Engineer and Bob Rajabi isEngineering Manager at Hydraulic Accumulator Div Parker HannifinCorp.


This rack has four, 350-gal, 4,000-psi back-up gas bottles used toreduce the size and cost of a large hydraulic system for theentertainment industry.

Hydropneumatic accumulators are widely used in hydraulic systems,holding stored power for peak demand. Now, they can besupplemented with gas bottles to reduce the cost and size of yourhydraulic system.

Accumulators have long been used to supplement pump flow, providingsuch benefits as leakage compensation, shock suppression, thermalexpansion and holding applications. In mobile applications,accumulators are used for ride control, steering, energy recovery,dead-engine pilot, supplementing pump flow in pilot lines, tracktake-up tensioning and hitch cushioning. Accumulators often allowthe use of smaller pumps, motors, and reservoirs.

Auxiliary gas bottles can be used as gas capacitors with hydraulicaccumulators to significantly reduce accumulator cost. Thisapproach is attractive where large accumulators are required. Forexample, die-casting and plastic injection-molding machines mayrequire large 100-gal accumulators, which are costly. But aback-up gas bottle may permit the use of a smaller accumulator,saving money and space.