Taking The guesswork ouT of hydraulic hosesEaton’s LifeSense hose technology designed to provide real-time monitoring of hose condition, alerts equipment operators when failure is imminent

By Mike Brezonick

knowing when a component on a piece of engine-powered equipment is going to fail

remains for the most part a guess. In many cases, it’s an educated guess — manufacturers have spent thousands of hours and millions of dollars on life-cycle studies and failure analyses to determine how long components will last. But in the end, because of the vagrancies of each application, the environment or conditions a machine may find itself in, the dedication (or lack thereof) of maintenance person-nel and myriad other factors, know-ing when a failure is about to occur remains pretty much a guess.

In at least one case, however, the Hydraulics Group at Eaton Corp., work-ing with Purdue University, has devel-oped a product designed to take the guesswork out of the when-to-replace equation. Eaton’s new LifeSense hose

technology is essentially a heavy-duty hydraulic hose that provides continu-ous real-time condition monitoring and will warn the machine operator when hose failure is imminent.

The LifeSense hose is currently available in -8, -12 and -16 two-wire hose assemblies. Eaton said the hose offers performance equal to industry-standard 2SN pressure-rated hose and is certified to the same specifications as conventional hydraulic hose products.

The key to the LifeSense hose is that it incorporates wire layers — similar to those used in conven-tional high-pressure hose designs — as a conduit through which an electrical signal is passed. “It’s very similar in construction to our current hoses,” said Doug Jahnke, Eaton product marketing manager. “We had to tweak the materials that we use a little, so it is a unique construction.

The fittings also are unique — not terrifically different from what we build every day — and the performances are to standard pressures.”

The electrical signals are continu-ally passed to a monitor that can be mounted in a machine’s cab or oper-ator compartment. When it detects a specific change in condition that indicates a hose failure is imminent, it alerts the machine operator. A single monitoring unit is designed to handle input from multiple hose assemblies.

“It’s kind of like a temperature gauge in a car,” Jahnke said. “It’s measuring the entire length of the hose circumfer-ential using an electrical signal. While the equipment is on, the monitor is in constant contact with the full length of the hose. When the hose starts to degrade or the material on the hose starts to degrade, it sends a signal that is detected by the monitor.

“There is a consistent pattern of events that happens leading to failure in every hose. So it’s not looking at just a single point or several points in the hose, it’s looking at the entire hose. Any place there is a weak spot, it is picked up by the monitor.”

Like so many other technological advancements, the evolution of the LifeSense hose concept began two years ago during the course of some normal hose research.

“One of our hose engineers was in the lab doing some testing and he noticed some very consistent results prior to failure in the feedback he was getting from the hoses that he was testing,” Jahnke said. “He was getting the same feedback whenever a hose was about to fail. So we started a proj-ect working with Purdue University to

Eaton’s new LifeSense hose technology is designed to alert machine operators of hydrau-lic hose failure in real time. Electrical signals are passed through the wire layers of the hose and the condition of the hose is compared to known failure modes. When a hose failure is imminent, the in-cab monitor alerts the operator of the situation.

DIESEL PROGRESS NORTH AMERICAN EDITION September 2011

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try and expand on what he learned to confirm those consistencies.”

It was clear from the outset what the potential for bringing real-time predictability could potentially bring to the mobile fluid power market, Jahnke added.

“Until now, there has not been a system out there that could accurately tell someone that a hose is approach-ing the end of its useful life,” he said. “So you either wait until it fails and then you replace it — in which case you have oil in the ground, you’ve got failed equipment, downtime and pos-sibly safety issues and environmental concerns. Or every so often you just replace the hoses.”

That, Jahnke said, could also be a costly proposition. “I was at a gold mine and we went into the shop,” he said. “They had a mobile drill rig that had probably about 150 hydraulic hoses on it. It had been underground for about seven months and they brought it up for their preventive maintenance.

“The maintenance mechanic said they were probably going to replace most, if not all, of the hydraulic hoses on that piece of equipment — even though it had only been underground for seven months — because they didn’t want the possibility of a hose failure underground stopping produc-tion, where it’s immediately hundreds and hundreds of dollars lost.

“That same mentality applies to underground coal mines. We’ve seen that time and again, they just bring

DIESEL PROGRESS NORTH AMERICAN EDITION September 2011

in December of last year, Eaton acquired the quick disconnect coupling products, technolo-

gies and manufacturing facilities associated with Hansen couplings and Coupleurs Gromelle, a move intended to enhance the company’s ability to serve a range of hydrau-lic and pneumatic markets includ-ing mobile equipment, oil and gas exploration, agriculture, construc-tion and mining.

The addition of Ohio-based Hansen and Gromelle of France also “strengthens Eaton’s regional presence to better serve key market segments,” said Jeffrey Finch, senior vice president and general manager of Eaton’s Hydraulics Group’s Fluid Conveyance Operations.

Yet the most obvious result of the merger is the influx of new coupling products, many of which target both mobile machine and stationary applications. “We bring a variety of quick connects into the fold,” said Brett Jaffe, Eaton’s cou-pling business director. “Previously, Eaton had the Aeroquip product line, and there are couplings within that brand that we’ll be able to leverage extensively.

“But with the Hansen and Gromelle products, we can address additional new niches and focuses not available to Eaton previously. We can develop solutions for a variety of different markets.

“One we’ve recently created is color coding a flat-faced coupling that is for the lubrication of mining equip-ment. The color codes each rep-resent a different type of oil or fluid going into the machine, so there is less chance of cross contamination.”

Eaton based the lubrication sys-

equipment up every year and just strip all the hoses off and put new hoses on because downtime is extremely expensive. On oil and gas rigs out in the ocean, the cost of downtime can be more than $500,000 a day if a rig has to shut down and they can’t produce oil.”

The LifeSense hose, he said, would mean that downtime could be minimized, along with the cost of replacing hoses that still have ser-vice life in them.

“Our estimate is that in gener-al, users who use a time-based replacement process would get 50% or more — and sometimes far more — life out of their hoses with LifeSense,” Jahnke said. “Typically in our testing, the failure is detected within 5% of the end of the useful life of the hose. It’s usually between 1 and 2%. But 1 and 2% is usually weeks or months. It’s not something where you find out minutes or even hours that failure is imminent.

“That means that preventive main-tenance becomes more of a routine process, and when they do have a hose that’s been identified as going to fail, they can do it during the pre-ventive maintenance time or they can just stop the piece of equipment and replace it without having downtime out of the blue.”

The LifeSense technology is current-ly available with factory-made assem-blies including straight JIC swivel fit-tings, Eaton said. dp

Eaton’s LifeSense hose technology is currently available in -8, -12 and -16 two-wire hose assemblies and is designed to offer performance equal to industry-standard 2Sn pressure-rated hoses, while meeting the same certification specifications as conventional hydraulic hose products.

Making More connectionsProducts from late-2010 acquisitions broaden Eaton’s coupling product line

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tem on the FF-Series of flat-face quick-disconnect hydraulic couplings that offer dry-break connections and are targeted toward contamination-sensi-tive applications in agricultural, mining, construction and railway equipment, trucks, skid-steer loaders and oil and gas equipment. They are rated for working pressures up to 5057 psi and are available in six sizes from 0.25 in. to 1.0 in. The FF-Series couplings meet

or exceed the ISO 16028 standard applicable to this classification of quick-disconnect couplings, Eaton said.

The TH-Series quick-disconnect hydraulic couplings target oil and gas, as well as mobile applications such as construction, mining, agricul-tural and railway maintenance equip-ment. They also meet the dimen-sional requirements of MIL-C-51234, Eaton said.

They incorporate a ball-locking mechanism and a low pressure drop, Eaton said, and are available in RoHS-compliant zinc-plated steel and 316 stainless steel with stain-less-steel springs, balls and retaining rings, and standard Buna-N or option-al fluorocarbon seals. They are rated for working pressures to 6500 psi and are available in four sizes from 0.25 to 1.0 in., the company said. dp

the addition of the quick disconnect coupling products, technologies and manufacturing facili-ties of hansen couplings and coupleurs Gromelle has enhanced Eaton’s ability to serve a range of hydraulic and pneumatic markets. additions to the product line include the th-Series quick-disconnect hydraulic couplings that target oil and gas and mobile applications, along with the FF series couplings suitable for contamination-sensitive applications in mobile machinery and oil and gas equipment.

REPRINTED FROM SEPTEMBER 2011 DIESEL PROGRESS North American Edition Copyright Diesel & Gas Turbine Publications Printed in U.S.A.