Designing hydraulic manifolds is our core expertise \u2013 we\u2019ve made thousands over the years. A well-executed design always starts with the right methodology and clear priorities. There are many guidelines, but also a lot that \u201cdepends.\u201d Every design requires trade-offs to determine what the most important priorities are for that specific manifold.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how we go about it \ud83d\ude0a<\/p>\n
The schematic is the initial phase where we find the best way to solve the function.<\/p>\n
An important early question in the process is: Valve placement is a very central part of the design. Here are a few tips and tricks.<\/p>\n This often creates a trade-off: There are rules and tables from SUN Hydraulics for:<\/p>\n These are based on wall thickness, mounting distance, and any sleeves used.<\/p>\n If electronic feedback is needed\u2014either to control valves or as feedback to a control system\u2014it is often beneficial to integrate pressure transducers and pressure sensors into the manifolds.<\/p>\n A guideline for wall thickness is never to design so that it drops below 5 mm. This includes extra margin and can be adjusted depending on several parameters, such as:<\/p>\n To reduce the number of construction drillings (and avoid external cross-drillings that must be plugged), you can work with internal angle drillings.<\/p>\n Thanks to SUN Hydraulics having larger port intersections, there is more margin to hit correctly, the possibility of larger passages, and therefore lower pressure drop.<\/p>\n Test ports should be designed in from the beginning. The most common are tube-mounted or sandwich-mounted manifolds, but you can also design manifolds that:<\/p>\n A flanged surface must be ground and have sufficiently good surface finish. Orifices can easily be designed directly into the manifold.<\/p>\n A rule of thumb is that if pressure exceeds 210 bar, we choose steel. This is a general guideline related to fatigue. At 210 bar, aluminium does not withstand 1 million cycles without fatiguing to the point where it can become a risk. Constant pressure is significantly more gentle than pulsating pressure. Weight is also a factor in material selection.<\/p>\n Material selection:<\/p>\n When the design is complete, reviewed by a colleague of the lead designer, and approved by the customer, the manifold goes into manufacturing. We have a large, well-established base of manifold manufacturers. Which manufacturer best suits the specific design is also a trade-off between:<\/p>\n If you are a company that machines materials, you will always get a good result in the cavity using SUN\u2019s cavity tooling (pre-drill and reamer).<\/p>\n If you have questions about manifold design, want design support, or need help manufacturing and assembling manifolds\u2014just get in touch with us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Designing hydraulic manifolds is our core expertise \u2013 we\u2019ve made thousands over the years. A well-executed design always starts with the right methodology and clear priorities. There are many guidelines, but also a lot that \u201cdepends.\u201d Every design requires trade-offs to determine what the most important priorities are for that specific manifold. Here\u2019s how we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19798,19799],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knowledge","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nShould the schematic be optimized for cost, function, or lead time?<\/strong><\/p>\nValve placement<\/h2>\n
\n
\nShould the manifold be optimized for compactness \u2013 or for user-friendliness and ease of assembly?<\/strong>
\nIt impacts the layout significantly. And on top of that \u2013 who doesn\u2019t like a symmetrical manifold?<\/p>\nRules for valve placement<\/h2>\n
\n
Sensors and transducers<\/h2>\n
Wall thickness and basic guidelines<\/h2>\n
\n
Construction drillings and cross-drillings<\/h2>\n
\n
Test ports and diagnostic points<\/h2>\n
\nWhen the manifold is fully designed, it costs little to add test ports.<\/p>\n\n
Mounting solutions<\/h2>\n
\n
\nAll ports are made with a recessed spotface and extra fine surface finish (Ra value).<\/p>\nOrifices and plugging<\/h2>\n
\n
Material selection and guidelines<\/h2>\n
\n
Manifold manufacturing<\/h2>\n
\n
SUN cavity tooling<\/h2>\n
\n