The characteristics of hydraulic technology are suitable for various mechanical and equipment requirements such as automation, high performance, large capacity, small size, and light weight. Although it is a relatively new branch of technology, it is widely used in power transmission mechanisms, auxiliary operating mechanisms, or operational automation control mechanisms.
1. After World War I, hydraulic control technology began to be applied to naval vessels. By the time of World War II, it had been widely used in various fields on land, sea, and air. With the development of aerospace technology, there was a special demand for high-precision, high-response hydraulic servo systems. Soon, hydraulic control systems, initially developed in military products, were promoted and applied to various industrial production sectors.
2. In missile technology, apart from small air-to-air, ground-to-air missiles, and short-range anti-tank missiles, which use pneumatic control due to their light weight and low guidance power, medium-range and long-range missiles almost exclusively use hydraulic control.
3. In ground weapons, hydraulic servo systems were already used on anti-aircraft weapons before World War II. Currently, hydraulic control is used in the stabilization devices of tank cannons, the steering systems of heavy vehicles, and the search and tracking systems of radar antennas.
4. In civil industries, hydraulic control is widely used in the automation of machinery manufacturing, machining centers, mechanical arms, robots, rolling mills in the metallurgical industry, construction machinery, chemical machinery, and various other industrial sectors. As automation levels in various industries continue to rise and the speed and power of machinery and equipment increase, hydraulic control technology is being applied more extensively.
Compared to mechanical and electrical transmissions, hydraulic transmission has the following advantages:
1. Hydraulic transmission components can be conveniently and flexibly arranged according to requirements.
2. It is light in weight, small in size, has low inertia, and fast response.
3. It is easy to operate and control, allowing for a wide range of infinitely variable speeds (speed range up to 2000:1).
4. It can automatically provide overload protection.
5. Mineral oil is commonly used as the working medium, and the relative moving surfaces can self-lubricate, leading to a long service life.
6. It is easy to achieve linear motion.
7. It is easy to automate machinery. When using electro-hydraulic combined control, not only can a higher degree of automatic control be achieved, but remote control can also be implemented.
