Operators of hydraulic equipment across many industries have long been concerned with hydraulic hose quick connect failures. Hydraulic quick couplings are one of the most important components on many variations of machinery and equipment used in demanding applications, yet are often overlooked until failure occurs. The costs of hydraulic connection failures can be catastrophic by posing serious safety risks, out of control financial losses, and environmental contamination.
When failure does occur, it is most often due to the incorrect quick coupling selection. While reliable hydraulic quick couplers are one of the most important parts, they are usually the least expensive. Selecting quick couplers based solely on price can be a mistake when there are many couplings available to meet even the most demanding and pressurized applications. Hydraulic quick couplers should be chosen on the appropriate service factor, planning for the worst case scenario.
Rather than selecting hydraulic hose quick connect couplings based solely on the best fit under normal operating conditions, couplings should be selected with other factors in mind. For example, are there excessive start-ups, shut-downs or upsets? Is there frequent excessive torque? Is the application prone to cause misalignment, heat transfer, vibration? What is the maintenance schedule? Knowing the answers to all these questions is helpful in selecting the right quick coupling for hydraulic hoses in any application.
Costs of Hydraulic Hose Quick Connect Failures
Financial Losses
Hydraulic hose quick connect failures can lead to significant losses for organizations in many industries. Some industries in particular may experience catastrophic losses, while others will experience losses on some level. For example, unplanned downtime at a steel mill could cost tens of thousands of dollars in losses with each hour, mobile construction applications experience losses with each incident while the oil and gas industry could experience hundreds of thousands of dollars during any type of unplanned shutdown.
Personal Injury
When hydraulic hose quick couplings fail, financial losses are only one of the greatest concerns. Safety to workers and the public is another real threat when failure occurs in hydraulic applications. Depending on the process and pressure involved, personal injuries and even death may occur to employees working in highly pressurized applications. This causes significant emotional turmoil and will tarnish a company’s reputation for years to come.
Environmental Contamination
Environmental contamination is another real threat of hydraulic hose connection failures, creating costly clean up efforts. Large spills and highly publicized environmental contamination cause significant financial losses in addition to ruining a company’s reputation. These types of losses impact a company’s current financial statement and negatively impact opportunities for future revenue.
Costly Repairs
Hydraulic hose quick connect failures can damage buildings, machinery and high-value capital equipment. The cost of replacing equipment and repairing damaged property can be significant.
With the magnitude of potential losses from hydraulic hose connection failures, it is clear that organizations must maintain leak-free, failure proof hydraulic connections.
Hydraulic Hose Quick Connect Solutions
While some businesses may operate with the traditional method of running a component on machinery and equipment until it fails, investing a little time into analyzing the process and selecting the proper hydraulic quick couplers far outweighs the devastating losses that occur with hydraulic hose failures. Working with an experienced hydraulic connection specialist provides valuable direction with proper quick coupling selection and placement. Experienced quick coupling engineers offer expertise and insight into how to properly analyze hydraulic connection applications and provide the optimum connection solution.
Stucchi Offers Hydraulic Hose Quick Connect Analysis and Product Solutions
Stucchi has more than 60 years in business as an experienced hydraulic quick coupling solutions expert, offering process analysis and product solutions for leak-free, failsafe hydraulic hose connections. Our extensive quick connect product line includes:
- Flat Face Couplers
- Threaded Flat Face Couplers
- Multi-Coupling Plates
- Poppet Interchange Couplers
- Threaded Poppet Couplers
- Accessories
- High-Pressure-10000-PSI
- Check Valves
- Specialty Coupling
We provide valuable process analysis from experienced quick connect and disconnect solutions experts, with custom designed solutions available. We excel at problem solving and process improvement, offering ongoing technical support. Stucchi is recognized worldwide for reliable, failsafe and leak-proof connections which eliminate equipment downtime, environmental contamination and risk of personal injury.
Stucchi leads the industry with leak-free hydraulic quick connect and disconnect solutions, providing safety, reliability and durability to many industrial applications worldwide. We provide custom engineering solutions for nonstandard and challenging configurations. Contact us today to learn more about how to avoid failures in hydraulic hose quick connect applications.