Benefits of hydraulic transmission

In machines and industrial plants, energy is transported to its point of use by :

• mechanical vectors: shafts, belts, sprockets, etc. ;

• the electricity vector ;

• fluid vectors :

  • of gases, we speak of pneumatic tires,

  • This is known as hydraulics.

In a number of cases, and very often when it comes to power control, hydraulics offers the best solution. It is the demonstration of this assertion that is the subject of this article.

In recent years, in industry (machine tools, robotics, etc.), hydraulic power has been replaced by electricity. There are many reasons for this:

• the ripple effect of lightning progress in electronics (why not entrust power functions to electricity too?);

• spectacular progress in electric motors: rare-earth magnets (samarium-cobalt) and electronically commutated motors (brushless motors);

• dramatic lack of hydraulic skills, especially in France (isn't our education system to blame?);

• Hydraulics' bad reputation is the result of prejudice and incompetence (it leaks, it's dirty, it wastes energy, it's capricious and inaccessible to calculation!

• fashion (hydraulics are outdated!).

While there are currently good reasons for rectifying the boundary between hydraulics and electricity, hydraulics are nonetheless irreplaceable in a large number of sectors: from automotive braking to offshore platform stabilization, not forgetting the world of agricultural and public works machinery, or the piloting of modern aircraft.

What's more, the hydraulics-electronics-computing alliance opens up new sectors, making it possible to meet needs that until now had scarcely been dared to formulate, such as active suspension for vehicles, generalized active control for aircraft, and so on.