‘Eaton’s hydraulics technology has set new standards for performance’

August 12, 2009 11:40 am

Eaton has been a pioneer in designing and developing products specific to meet the challenges of the industry. Nitin Chalke, Managing Director-India, Hydraulics Business, Eaton, talks about the vital role played by the company in various sectors in this interview with Dilip S. Phansalkar
 
What kind of hydraulic systems and components does Eaton provide to support the needs of various industries and sectors across India?
From massive earthmovers to delicate molding machines, Eaton provides the hydraulic power solutions to meet our customers’ most demanding standards for performance, safety, reliability and comfort. Eaton is one of the few companies which has the capability to offer system solutions for all market segments.
 
The entire product portfolio within Eaton’s Hydraulics business is put into three major categories: Power (pumps, motors, etc.); Controls (valves, cylinders, actuators) & Fluid Conveyance Products (hoses, fittings, fire sleeves, etc.) and these components and/or complete system solutions cover various applications across industries and markets including  Mobile (agriculture or construction, earth moving) to Stationary (machine tools, IMM, metal processing), Marine, Mining, Aerospace, Wind power, Hydropower, Nuclear Power or Thermal Power, Oil & Gas, Paper/ Plywood  and so on. 
 
From world-class engineering capabilities in system design assistance to comprehensive service and technical support after the sale, Eaton’s Hydraulics business is committed to one clear objective – complete satisfaction with all Eaton products and systems, for both industrial and mobile users.
 
How significant has been the role played by Eaton in various sectors such as oil & gas, transport, construction, etc?
Eaton has been a pioneer in designing and developing products specific to meet the challenges of the Industry. Eaton’s Hydraulics system control technology has helped set new standards for performance and reliability.  Eaton components have logged millions of hours operating in demanding construction environments. Our engineers fully understand temperature, dust and water demands construction machines must deal with on a daily basis.
 
Eaton offers the most robust line of customized hydraulic solutions for both land and sea-based oil and gas exploration, production and refinement platforms, starting with our specialized rod coatings on large cylinders, heavy duty pumps, high pressure hoses for subsea production and no leak tube fittings.
 
Our solutions for the various sectors are:
·         Oil & Gas: Special sub-sea tube bundles/hoses and fittings for offshore drilling (challenging environment & high performance demand), thermoplastic hoses for CNG applications.
·         Transport: Power saving/fuel efficient hybrid transmissions, hydrostatic transmission, fan drive systems.
·         Construction: Eaton has pioneered off-highway steering systems & special valves for mobile application.
·         Stationary: Vickers brand of Eaton were the pioneers to introduce products like Vane pumps, solenoid valves, proportional valves, control valves for stationary market. Such has been the contribution of Eaton that today oil companies also measure the quality of the hydraulic mineral oils by a test called “Vickers Test” using a Vickers Vane pump.
 
What specific requirements of the gricultural sector have been met?
Long recognized as a global leader, Eaton has a wide range of reliable world-class products to serve virtually any mobile vehicle. In the agricultural sector Eaton is the only company in India offering complete system solution for tractors.   Our Pune plant caters to the requirements of most of the products for the Indian market. The diagram below represents the products that go into tractors.
Apart from tractors, Eaton is also system solution provider for both Wheel and Track Combine Harvester and has been the pioneers in introducing the Hydrostatic Technology in this application in India.
 
Can we have a brief list of hydraulic systems (products)?
Eaton designs and manufactures hydraulics solution for large on-road and off-road mobile OEMs in the agriculture, construction, mining, marine and lawn and garden markets. Eaton is also a major force in providing hydraulic components and systems to leading industrial OEMs. It manufactures an array of products as mentioned below:
Pumps: Gear Pumps, Vane Pumps and Piston Pumps.
Motors: Gear Motors, Vane Motors and Piston Motors.
Hydrostatic: Low Pressure (140 bar) HST, Medium Pressure (210 bar) HST and High Pressure (400 bar) HST.
Directional Control Valves: Mobile Manual Valves, Solenoid Valves, Proportional Valves.
Control Valves: Pressure Control, Flow Control, Screw-in Cartridge Valves, Slip-in Cartridge Valves
Cylinders: Stationary applications (machine tools, presses), Mobile Steering Cylinders,
Position Control Feedback Cylinders, Special Heavy Duty Cylinders for DAM Gates, Stacker Reclaimer and Mil Duty Application Cylinders.
Fluid Conveyance: Hoses and Fittings for all applications.
Filters & Accessories: Filters, Accumulators, Pressure Switches, etc for various applications.
Complete Power Units: Power units designed, manufactured, assembled & tested by us for numerous applications including steel mills, wind mills, dam gates, thermal power/material handling applications.
 
Why do you feel clients should choose Eaton’s hydraulic solutions?
Eaton wants to be the most admired company in its markets and we strive hard to better ourselves to provide the best of solutions to our customers. Eaton produces not only some of the world’s best hydraulic products, but also the best and most complete world-class hydraulic services, systems and solutions. Customers thus get the value for their money and can be assured of complete system solution for their application. Eaton also has an Engineering Center located in India which is involved in the design and development of cutting-edge hydraulic products. This gives Eaton the strength and capability to develop machine-specific adopted products. One of our recent successes has been to design a Hitch Valve which meets the Indian application conditions. The complete development of Hitch Valve was done by Eaton India team. It is a proportional flow control valve specifically designed for tractor application. This product is designed for domestic as well as export market. It has many advanced features and integration of various valve functions like unloader, relief valve, check valve, rate of drop valve (transport lock), discharge & pre-selector. In addition, it is very easy for maintenance
 
What are the requirements for eco-centric solutions?
Eaton has a growing presence in virtually every form of energy exploration – from helping oil, gas and coal companies extract resources more safely and efficiently from both the earth and the sea, to advancing the development of renewable energy technologies. In the booming wind energy market, for example, we’re combining our Hydraulics and Electrical expertise to develop more reliable and capable components that improve the performance and uptime of wind turbines and help reduce operating costs. At the same time, we’re applying our combined hydraulics and electrical expertise to other renewable resources by helping to build efficient hydropower systems in developing countries, such as Vietnam, and working with pioneer Ocean Power Technologies to generate energy from ocean currents and waves. Eaton also has an emerging presence in solar power, helping to create and deploy more efficient solar inverters and battery storage systems, making it possible to deliver affordable electric power to the most remote places on earth. Eaton has answered the need of mobile hydraulics through the development of new ‘smart’ electro-hydraulic technologies that shrink the footprint of hydraulics systems, improve their performance and energy efficiency, and reduce emissions. These technologies give equipment manufacturers greater design flexibility to achieve the goal that every customer desires: More function, less fuel.
 
The specific range of sustainable products is: Hydraulic Launch Assist for on highway trucks and buses which gives fuel savings up to 30 per cent. Series Hybrids for vehicles using hydrostatic transmissions, which also give fuel savings in same range. Electric Hybrids for on highway vehicles. Fan Drive System for on highway vehicles.
 
What range of services does Eaton provide for vehicles?
As emissions regulations increase, cooling systems are more important than ever. With flexible placement and noise reduction in mind, Eaton hydraulic components are designed to make the most of a vehicle’s internal components. Eaton hydraulics parts also provide services to fan drives, power steering, vane pumps and fluid conveyance, offering custom solutions to any place on the vehicle where fluids are used.
Eaton has numerous solutions for the mobile industrial segment. For off-highway vehicles, Eaton has been the pioneer in designing the Steering System apart from offering the complete hydraulic solution for any off-highway application vehicle. For on-highway (truck and bus) Eaton has the Fan Drive System which enables fuel savings up to 30 per cent, depending on the application. Specific products are mentioned above.
The complete range of off highway solutions are represented below:
How does Eaton hydraulics protect and preserve dams, flood control, bridges, etc.
Eaton again is one of the few companies who can offer complete system solutions for dams and flood controls. The Hydrowa cylinders with Eaton hydraulic power packs and fluid conveyance provide one-stop solution for such applications. Our successful projects include Panama Canals and Thao Long Dam in Vietnam. Recently, Eaton has won one of Japan’s largest flood-control projects on the Shinano River flowing from Nagano to Niigata in northern Japan.
 
What are the top concerns of Eaton and how does the company put them into practice when applying solutions?
Our singular focus is helping customers manage electrical, fluid and mechanical power–making it more effective, efficient and safe. At Eaton, nothing is more important to us than the issues and opportunities that are most important to our customers. It begins by really knowing our customers, their industries and the markets they serve. And through a process we call disciplined innovation, we focus our technology and resources on those areas that we believe can benefit our customers the most.
 
We ensure our customers get the answers they need faster and more cost- effectively. At the same time, we’ll never compromise quality or safety. We continuously try to deliver our products which give power efficiency and power density advantages, lower cost of ownerships, less noisy equipment and components, environment friendly design and operations.
 
How do you make sure your operations are designed to last for decades?
Across every continent, customers challenge us to make their products perform better and more efficiently across a wide range of markets — including agriculture, construction, mining, forestry, marine and lawn-and-garden care.
 
In this way, Eaton’s industry leading hydraulic systems and components support the needs of millions of users worldwide, touching virtually every aspect of industry, commerce and life.
 
To fuel greater innovation and build deeper partnerships, Eaton systems specialists and applications engineers work hand in hand with customers to quickly resolve platform-specific issues, or to design complete hydraulic system solutions.
 
We support our customers’ global needs through the largest distributor network in the industry, and we operate manufacturing plants in US, Europe, India, Japan and China.
 
How are the company’s construction equipment hydraulically driven?
Today’s construction equipment designers are relying more and more on smooth, efficient, precise hydraulics to help their machines meet the ever-increasing demands of the marketplace. And Eaton is always there with a complete line of hydraulic pumps, controls and accessories, building systems to make machines faster, quieter, more efficient, and more reliable.
 
Eaton does not manufacture any construction equipment within the hydraulics space.
However, the solutions for the construction market range from hydraulic components and system solutions kits for hydraulically operating construction equipment. For example, transit mixers, concrete pumps, wheel loaders, compactors, cranes, pavers, drills and so forth.
 
What has been the significant contribution of Eaton in the agricultural sector?
Eaton hydraulics components deliver efficient operation and more power to the ground, with standard and custom transmission packages that seamlessly integrate into existing systems for a smooth custom fit. Plus, our wide array of pumps and fluid conveyance products deliver smooth, transparent operation, so the operator is always in control.
 
As already mentioned in one of the previous answers, Eaton provides Hydraulic Solutions to almost all mechanized processes and equipment deployed in agricultural sectors. For instance, Tractors (both manual & power steered), Combine Harvesters (track or wheel versions), Irrigation & Forestry.
 
Eaton hydraulic components provide critical functions such as smooth steering functions, precise hydrostatic pumps and motors to move the machine exactly as needed, and auxiliary pumps and valves to direct fluid power to the many functions such as header drives, unloading augers, chaff spreaders, and others.