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Assembling hydraulic manifolds is `child`s play`

01 April, 2003

Assembling hydraulic manifolds is `child`s play`

A Swedish company has developed a modular system for producing hydraulic manifolds which, it claims, is as simple to assemble as children`s` building blocks. Arlöv-based Nihab claims that its Legoflex system will save time, space and costs compared to conventional manifolds, as well as offering greater flexibility and making testing easier.

Nihab says that a major attraction of its system is evident when you need to add control functions to a power unit. The conventional way of doing this is to use pipes, hoses, fittings and sandwich plates. As well as being time-consuming and resulting in bulky installations, such systems are prone to leaks.

The new system avoids such problems by assembling the required functions using individual blocks, each of which has a specific function such as a directional valve, a pressure reducer, a load sensor or a pressure filter. There are also connecting blocks to link the elements together

Nihab`s managing director Christian Lauridsen (above) says that the idea is so simple, it is amazing that no one thought of it before. "We simply design a hydraulic control function as a manifold block, then we combine the blocks and get a power unit," he says. The system is "very uncomplicated," he adds.

The manifold blocks are based on the Cetop 3/NG6 and 5/NG10 standards, but the system provides sufficient space between the valves and connections to allow the use of larger tubes, thus lowering the pressure drop in the system. Each block has two test points, allowing problems to be identified without having to dismantle a conventional block and valves.

Nihab uses an interactive 3D program to design the manifolds. The files can be converted to suit most CAD programs, and design proposals can be sent by email.




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