Commissioning of hydraulic system

In my experience so far I had commissioning jobs and I would like to highlight some important aspect of it.

The hydraulic fluid itself which the system is fill is a major source of contamination. I always remind people involve that the more careless will handle hydraulic fluid more problem they will get.

New tank is a collection point for rust, paint chips, dust, cigarette butts and paper cups

Nowadays I revise my old article and I remember my experiences on board commercial or offshore vessels as hydraulic troubleshooter

Before commissioning lot of time is spend to flush the oil and check the results.

Before commissioning following procedures require:

New fluid should be put into the system through the filter or a separate filter unit. The filtration rating of the flushing must be at least the same as the filtration rating for normal operation of the system.
The existing hydraulic fluid in the system should be cleaned with a separate filter unit.
Start the hydraulic pump, and flush through filter unit and will ensure that solid particle contamination returning from hydraulic power unit will be filtered
After a predetermined amount of flushing, a sample a fluid will be checked and determined the amount of contamination. Depend of the results, more flushing may be required.

Flushing procedure

The flushing procedure depends on the size of the tank, the cleanliness of the installation, the components used, and the required cleanliness of the fluid. Another important aspect is high precision , sensitive components that would damage during flushing. Therefore e.g. servo valves and proportional valves are best not install until flushing have complete.

Any modifications to piping or repair work or if equipment is move to a new site installation need flushing again.

Flushing oil temperature should be above 50°C to dissolve any solid contamination and the velocity of the fluid at least 8m/s for achieving turbulent flow in tube.