Volvo Graders

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Volvo Motor Graders asked ITI to help investigate unusual hydraulic pump failures associated with their C-50 graders in service throughout areas of the Asia Pacific region.

Testing

A plan was developed to compare a grader in a typical North American application against one used in Asia. The project used an on-board field data acquisition system to measure hydraulic pump pressures, flow rates, and temperatures.

ITI traveled to North Carolina to instrument and collect data on a Volvo grader. The grader, located at a building construction site, ran for long hours under what was considered long, but typical field operating conditions.

Testing shifted to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where ITI prepared a similar grader and collected normal operating data.

Results

Customer Usage Profiling (CUP) revealed that the Malaysian grader was operated at higher pump pressures with significantly higher oil temperature. Two conclusions were drawn:

• The grader in Asia was being operated unusually harsh for a grader its size.
• The higher Asia oil temperatures were attributed to lower than normal fluid levels.

Correcting the Problem

Customer Usage Profiling uncovered two significant factors contributing to the early hydraulic pump failures.

Volvo utilized the data to troubleshoot the problem in existing graders while providing design / manufacturing / maintenance data to be used for future products.