When I first started my previous business I worked a great deal commissioning the hydraulics on vehicle systems. During field trials there were reports of the hydraulics on one vehicle being slow. I asked what data was available and there were pressure traces of the operation which showed the pressure was okay but also showed a slow cycle time, different to the other vehicles. Data for the control system indicated all was okay in that area. More data was needed on the hydraulics so I requested a flow meter was attached to the pump outlet on the vehicle.
During the week the problem was mentioned at each meeting and I asked for data on the pump flow at each meeting. Finally a test was performed on the flow and the pump was found to be running at 70% of its capacity. Replacing the pump with a new fully functional one solved the problem. The faulty pump was sent away for analysis.
When troubleshooting hydraulic problems data is key to understanding the problem. Changing the pump as a first shot at fixing the problem would have worked but nobody would have know why and what lessons could have been learnt from that?
