Nejc Novak, dr. Ana Trajkovski, prof. dr. Mitjan Kalin, univ. dipl. inž., izr. prof. dr. Franc Majdič, univ. dipl. inž., vs Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za strojništvo

Abstract:
Hydraulic systems are increasingly present in all segments of our production chains, such as agriculture, construction, transport and various industries. Pumps are mostly the key components of any hydraulic system. With the newly developed gear pump testing device, sustainability tests are performed on five gear pumps simultaneously, as shown in Figure 1. One pump is tested with medium test dust, one with actual filter-extracted wear particles, and the last three simulate a real hydraulic system with cleanliness of oil 20/19/17 according to ISO 4406. The flow rates and thus the volumetric efficiencies decrease as the pump wears, as shown in Figures 7 and 8. Monitoring the casing temperature with thermography camera (Figures 3 and 9) of the running and worn pump shows increasing internal leakage and decreasing efficiency. The results of this research contribute to the sustainable development of hydraulic gear pumps and improving the efficiency of entire hydraulic systems.

Key words:
gear pump, oil cleanliness, wear particles, test dust, volumetric efficiency