Hydraulic test machine design - uni project

[DLMUK]

Hi,

For my university project I am going to design a hydraulic test machine and the associated control system.

The area of the design I am focusing on is the control system, value control, program within a PLC/HMI for operation and the electrical installation of it.

I am not too concerned with the mechanics and I am working with a mechanical engineer who will take care of safety factors etc.

What I am after is any ready material which may be relevant to understand the best practices for things like valve selection, automated control of values, dealing with overpressure/failure scenarios and pressure release etc.

I have done a scout around on google but cannot find books which are specific to this, I suppose this may be because it is too niche but thought I would ask here?

thanks.

 

[Steve Etter]

Believe it or not, this process is a lot more simple than you might think and, unless I am mistaken from what you tell us, here is probably where you need to start:

1) Define the process: This is mostly a mechanical / hydraulic thing where you need to know what has to happen, at what speed, at what time, at what pressures, and so on. A good flow chart of the process and each variable and requirement will help. You can't know how to do it until you know what you have to do.

2) Define how to achieve the process: What type of valves (pneumatic/hydraulic, 2-way/3-way/4-way) and how do they need to be controlled (PID, On/Off, other)? What feedbacks are you going to need and what do they look like (analog, digital)? By defining your needs in step 1, suppliers can point you to devices that can meet those needs.

Once you have these two steps done, you're really mostly there. You now know what success looks like (step 1) and you know how you will accomplish it (step 2). After that, finding a PLC, an HMI, and writing programs should be pretty straight forward assuming, of course, you know the basics of programming.

 

[James Mcquade]

the first thing you will need to do is define what you want !
What is it that your system controls.
this is not just a hydraulics design and electrical design, it is both designed together.
part 1 is the hydraulics design and what it controls.
part 2 is the electrical design and what I/o you need for the hydraulics
part 3 - MOST important - discussing what the hydraulics needs from the plc and what the plc can offer the hydraulics. Redesign of both systems may be needed.

regards,
james