Plastics a New Trend in Design of Fluid Power Elements and Systems

Abstract

The application of plastics instead of traditional metal materials is a new development trend in the field of fluid power. The Fluid Power Research Group (FPRG) from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology conduct research in this field. In previous works [6, 7, 11, 16, 17, 18], which were published on that topic, design solutions where shown, as well as research of models of typical hydraulic elements like gerotors, valves and cylinders, which were made of plastics. on the problem of designing, manufacturing and testing of fluid power elements made of plastics. The aim of this paper is to present the development of the works on hydraulic elements made of plastics. The main novelties are: a gerotor pump with a plastic body, research on global deformation of plastic cylinder, visualization and computer simulations of the valve poppet/seal assembly in plastic hydraulic valves, as well as innovative hydraulic systems.