23 March, 2010- As more and more organizations are understanding their social responsibility and turning towards eco-friendly machinery and work regime, biodegradable hydraulic fluid is too becoming a sought after product in the dawn of an environmentalist era.
Biodegradable hydraulic fluids alternatively known as biobased
hydraulic fluids, are vegetable oil based fluids. Biobased hydraulic fluids use sunflower, rapeseed, soybean etc. as the base oil and hence, cause less pollution in case of oil leaks or hydraulic hose failures. These fluids carry similar properties as that of a mineral oil based anti-wear hydraulic fluid but still some hydraulic manufacturer producers recommend the reduction of maximum operating pressure or operating load owing to the limited application testing, while using biodegradable hydraulic fluids. It also maintains the component life.
Hypothetically, if a company plans to introduce biobased fluids into the
hydraulic components of the machinery and the permissible operating pressure of hydraulic components is reduced to 80% then it would inversely lead to a 20% reduction in �break-out� force owing to the 20% reduction in excavator's operating pressure. It so because a reduction in system operating pressure leads to a reduction in actuator force.
Besides, the transformation would not only include the cost of fluid and flushing of machinery to transcend from mineral oil to vegetable oil repeatedly, but also, the derating costs of machinery.
The ever growing consciousness among people about mother nature has lead to the introduction of biodegradable or biobased fluid technology. These fluids would certainly become more popular once these are developed enough to compete against mineral oils in terms of commercial viability and performance.
