When it comes to Hydraulic Power Packs, Hydraulic Power Units, or HPUs, Flowtech are fully equipped to deal with both the manufacture of new units, as well as the refurbishment of older units, as and when required.

From complex design using state-of-the-art CAD software, all the way through to onsite installation by our team of engineers, Flowtech delivers full turnkey solutions for customers who need support with power pack manufacture, servicing and repair.

Our extensive capabilities include engineers with decades of experience working on power units, the right equipment to be able to disassemble and reassemble HPUs and the facilities to guarantee any specific requirements are met, located across the UK, Ireland and the Benelux.

Hydraulic power packs can be utilised in all manners of industries, and we have personally been involved in supporting customers from the Food & Beverage sector to Aerospace and everything in between.

What is a Hydraulic Power Pack?

A Hydraulic Power Pack is an assembled power unit consisting of a variety of components, including a hydraulic pump, accumulator, filter and a controller, as well as a cooler and heater to regulate temperature.

A HPU’s size and power output can differ, depending on the application and environment, but they are specifically designed to meet the rigorous demands of many industry sectors that require the production of high power levels.

Industries that utilise power packs include aerospace, quarrying & mining, industrial production factories, paper mills, energy for waste and metal recycling, amongst many others.

They are versatile units that often drive larger hydraulic systems, such as water treatment plants, and their reliability means they are often in service over the course of many years.

How does Flowtech service hydraulic power packs?

We help businesses across the UK and Europe by leveraging our experience of working with hydraulic power packs to help come up with the best solution to match the industry, environment and application.

Most importantly, we help a customer find the solution that is right for them.

This could be the manufacture of a brand new HPU, the repair and refurbishment of an old HPU, or even the creation of a like-for-like unit that will replace a faulty HPU that has come to the end of its lifespan.

Like many other Flowtech offerings, our assistance in manufacturing or servicing hydraulic power packs is mainly to ensure that a business keeps moving, minimises downtime and keeps the impact of any faults on production as low as possible.

Manufacturing new or like-for-like hydraulic power packs

With any project involving the manufacture of HPUs, we follow roughly the same process, though many projects can be very different from one another and require one or all of the following steps to reach project completion:

• Enquiry – this usually comes through a sales enquiry or directly to a Workshop Manager or Floor Manager at one of our Engineering Solution Centres (ESC), and is an opportunity for us to sit down with the customer and adopt a collaborative approach to finding the best solution
• Design - once the best solution for the customer is found and agreed upon, the design team will often be called upon to start creating detailed renderings of a solution through CAD programs such as Solidworks, to present to the customer and the engineering team so both have visibility over the specific dimensions, components and aesthetics
• Manufacture – working from an agreed job pack and completed circuit diagram, the power unit will then be assembled by our engineers to meet the exact requirements of the project. Like-for-like builds will often mean the team have had to reverse engineer a much older HPU and construct a new one to match the older specification
• Testing – before the power pack leaves the workshop, relevant testing will be completed to ensure the unit not only functions correctly but also meets all relevant industry standards
• Installation – if required, Flowtech engineers will visit the site to install the new power units and to make sure they are properly integrated into the hydraulic system
• Maintenance & Support – our engineers are often utilised after project completion to support customers with the ongoing maintenance of hydraulic power packs, and with other hydraulic components that may become faulty within an older system

Servicing existing hydraulic power packs

Equally, customers often seek out our support when it comes to existing hydraulic power packs, which may have become faulty through extensive use, or may have simply stopped working within their lifespan and require maintenance.

What follows is a process of diagnosing the specific problem a power unit is struggling with, fixing the problem and re-installing the unit before any significant downtime costs are incurred.

• Onsite diagnosis – Flowtech engineers are dispatched to a site in order to diagnose the problem with the existing HPU. Often this is due to contamination of the oil, meaning the oil has to be analysed to find out where the problem lies. Metals in the oil will indicate which point in the hydraulic system the fault lies, if it is not the power unit itself
• Disassemble – if it is indeed the power unit that is at fault, the engineering team may choose to bring the HPU back to the ESC in order to disassemble it and replace any internal components that have failed, including heaters, filters or controllers
• Upgrading - some older power packs will need upgrading to meet modern standards, which can be cost-effective for the customer to upgrade rather than completely replace with a new power unit
• Re-installation – once the workshop team have finished with a power unit, engineers will often be called upon to revisit the site with the serviced unit and reinstall it, ensuring that the hydraulic system continues to work effectively
• Maintenance & Support – Flowtech may often take up the responsibility of servicing other hydraulic components within a system, following a HPU repair project

Would you like to find out more?

Our Engineering Solution Centres that will be able to help with HPU enquiries include the following sites: