What are flow dividers and its types?

Hydraulic gears are getting minor, cheaper and more multipart as processing processes and making effectiveness continue to improve. For flow divider, what used to need a large pair of automatically joined geared motors has been abridged to a cartridge valve. But what’s new isn’t always better in every way. If you make the mistake of doing it, you can set yourself up for failure.

There can be serious hiccups in the selection process; for example, I thought, “Can I save money and space by using a spool type flow divider?” as an alternative of asking, “What’s the greatest for my car?” This editorial explains the dissimilarity between the two stream splitter styles and the considerations you need to keep in mind to avoid problems with the wrong application.

Gear type flow dividers

The working principle of the gear type flow divider is forward displacement. This means that with each turn, a certain volume is displaced. He is (for the most part) unaffected by pressure. Connect the shafts of two geared motors together, “T” inputs together and split the outputs, and you have a gear-type flow divider job.

Spool type flow dividers

The principle of operation of a spool or cartridge type flow divider is pressure compensation. This means that the spool on each side is displaced to balance the pressure required to move the oil in both paths. Since the fluid follows the path of least resistance, there must be the same resistance on both sides to ensure the same flow.

How does a geared flow divider work?

Reduced flow dividers work due to the fact that gears, which are connected and work in unison, are integrated into one housing. Since the gears are mechanically connected, they can rotate at the same speed, resulting in equal flows from their outlets. The flow from the pump can be split into two, three, or four equal flows or unequal smaller flows if a particular application is required, allowing proportional flow to different sized actuators.

In addition to splitting (and combining) flow, gear hydraulic flow dividers can also be used as pressure boosters or flow multipliers. This can reduce the size of the pump in the hydraulic circuit, which helps to reduce the required power. By reducing the size of the main components, you can also reduce the initial production and ongoing operating costs of the hydraulic system.

Why use hydraulic flow dividers?

What is a hydraulic flow divider for? Often, two actuators need to be synchronized with each other. When creating a linkage mechanism between the two drives is not possible or practical to ensure synchronization, another option is to control the oil flow to each drive. The total available flow can be halved (or in some other ratio) so that the total traffic is a certain, predictable amount on each side.

Flow divider types

Flow divider and adder

Unlike most spool-type flow dividers, gear-driven rotary flow dividers also combine reverse flows to ensure synchronization of the actuators in both directions of travel.

Equal, mixed and multi-section

Depending on the type of unit, flows from 2 to 600 liters can be divided exactly into two or up to eight equal or proportionally mixed flows.

Flow divider as amplifier

Discharging one outlet from a two-piece flow divider into a reservoir increases the outlet working pressure. The movement ratio of the flow divider sections is a measure of the resulting intensification.

Flow divider with integral fuses

To allow the lagging cylinder to quickly catch up at the end of its stroke, our flow dividers can be fitted with built-in differential fuses that return to the inlet of the unit.

How to choose hydraulic flow dividers

Each approach, of course, has its merits and demerits. The cost of a new spool / cartridge type flow divider is lower than that of a gear type. Gear type spacers are much larger and heavier, but more resistant to dirt. The main disadvantage of spool dividers is their sensitivity to pressure drops. In a situation with an uncontrolled flow meter input, all flow splitting is eliminated and the spool-type flow divider can also be the letter T. Another potential problem with spool dividers is heat generation.

They work by creating a differential pressure that creates heat. If they don’t generate heat, they don’t work. Under ideal conditions, both styles potentially have an accuracy of 2% or better. Generally speaking, unless cost, dimensions, or weight are prohibitively high, a gear-type flow divider will always be the most efficient type of flow divider. Select a spool-type divider only in a situation with minimum displacement loads, or ensure that distillation loads are controlled by other means, for example, balancing valves or placing a separator in a place where there is no meter. Consider carefully the amount of heat that will be generated by the flow and the pressure drop created.