Do You Know What’s Happening Inside Your Hydraulic Tank?
As far as machine components go, hydraulic reservoirs seem very simple and straightforward. As long as there’s enough oil in the tank to operate the equipment and no active leaks, no problem, right?
It may surprise you to hear that many hydraulic reservoirs are actually oversized, inefficient, and contributing to increased operational costs!
Schroeder Industries’ Tank Optimization Service can give you important insights into how fluid moves inside your reservoir and put you on the path towards a more efficient, cost effective, sustainable machine.
What Can Tank Optimization Do For You?
The ultimate end goal of Tank Optimization is to improve system efficiency. A reduction in tank size and fluid volume can have a range of benefits for the design, energy consumption, cost, and carbon footprint:
Increased Machine Space
A smaller hydraulic reservoir creates opportunities for design improvements. Tank Optimization can enable a larger fuel tank or battery, additional supply storage, or even an overall downsizing of the machine!
Improved Energy Efficiency
Reducing the tank size/overall fluid volume reduces both the weight and warmup time of the hydraulic system, allowing the equipment to operate with lower energy consumption.
Conservation of Resources
A smaller hydraulic tank means less oil is needed on the first fill for OEMs and on all subsequent fills for the end user, saving on oil-related costs! Additionally, the tank assembly will require less material to manufacture.
Increased Sustainability
Improving fuel efficiency, reducing oil volume, and minimizing the material needed to construct the system’s reservoir through Tank Optimization all contribute to a reduced carbon footprint.
How Does Tank Optimization Work?
Tank Optimization aims to reduce reservoir size and improve performance by addressing the following:
Schroeder Industries: Reservoir Revision Experts
Through cutting-edge simulations and CFD analyses, Schroeder Industries provides our customers with real world data on their reservoir’s internal dynamics and characteristics to uncover inefficiencies in the tank assembly.
From there, our experts can develop an optimized solution for virtually any application!
Learn more about what characteristics could be affecting your tank’s performance!
Schroeder Industries examines several key characteristics of the hydraulic reservoir in order to determine whether the tank is performing adequately, including:
Flow Simulations
One of the most important tank characteristics is flow. Flow simulations assess the flow patterns and velocity of fluid in the tank. Is the flow fast and turbulent? Are there stagnant pockets (dead zones) in the reservoir?
Thermal Simulations
Temperature can also reveal a lot about a reservoir’s design. How quickly/evenly does the fluid reach operating temperature? Do hot spots indicate faster fluid degradation? Do cold spots indicate stagnation?
Deaeration Simulations
Removing air from the hydraulic fluid is one of the most important roles of the hydraulic tank and return filter. These simulations determine air residence time in the reservoir, and whether it has time to effectively exit the fluid.
Sloshing Simulations
A sub-optimal tank can actually be one of the biggest contributors to air contamination! Sloshing simulations reveal if splashing within the reservoir could be trapping air in the hydraulic fluid and worsening air contamination.
Structural Analysis
The structure of a reservoir influences not just how fluid circulates, but also whether it will deflect when full or possibly fail or become damaged when mounting or bearing further loads.
Tank Optimization In Action
Schroeder Industries has helped dozens of customers downsize their reservoirs and maximize the efficiency of their tank assemblies, reducing cost and more!
Check out the following case studies, and ask our experts about a Tank Optimization consultation:
An OEM producing ride-on snow removal equipment, wanting to be more competitive in the market, sought solutions to improve their hydraulic oil cleanliness and optimize their systems.
By combining Tank Optimization with the advanced deaeration of Air Fusion Technology filtration, Schroeder Industries was able to downsize the reservoir from 9 gallons to 2 gallons, allowing the customer to improve their equipment design and become more competitive!
Here’s how Tank Optimization helped this customer:
Reservoir Downsized by 7 Gallons and 51lbs
Design Improvements: Runs 2x Longer Than Competitor
Nearly $100 USD Initial Cost Savings Per Unit
Initial CO2 Reduction: 100lbs Per Unit
With a smaller and more efficient hydraulic reservoir, CO2 savings will compound over the equipment’s lifespan!
An OEM manufacturing fire trucks wanted to free up space for more firefighting equipment and overall reduce the weight & improve the performance of their existing tank assembly.
Through Tank Optimization and the efficiency of a TNK25 complete tank package, Schroeder Industries was able to downsize their reservoir by more than half!
Here’s how Tank Optimization helped this customer:
Reservoir Downsized by 30 Gallons and 230lbs
Initial Cost Savings Per Unit of $946 USD
Additional Machine Space Created for Equipment Storage
Initial CO2 Reduction: 702lbs Per Unit
With a smaller and more efficient hydraulic reservoir, CO2 savings will compound over the equipment’s lifespan!
An OEM manufacturing a variety of hydraulic refuse trucks sought ways to improve the design and efficiency of their side loader model.
Through Tank Optimization and the in-tank benefits of Schroeder’s BRT filter, Schroeder Industries was able to downsize their existing 75 gallon reservoir.
Here’s how Tank Optimization helped this customer:
Reservoir Downsized by 19 Gallons
Weight Reduction of 335lbs Per Assembly
$380 Initial Oil Cost Savings Per Unit
Initial CO2 Reduction: 450lbs Per Unit
With a smaller and more efficient hydraulic reservoir, CO2 savings will compound over the equipment’s lifespan!
An OEM developing a variety of equipment for the oil and gas industry sought to increase the efficiency of the hydraulic wet kits powering their massive snubbing unit rigs, which operate using a very large industrial reservoir.
Through Tank Optimization, Schroeder Industries was able slash nearly 3/4 ton of weight from their tank assembly!
Here’s how Tank Optimization helped this customer:
Reservoir Downsized by 160 Gallons
Weight Reduction of 1411lbs Per Assembly
$3,200 Initial Oil Cost Savings Per Unit
Initial CO2 Reduction: 3780lbs Per Unit
With a smaller and more efficient hydraulic reservoir, CO2 savings will compound over the equipment’s lifespan!
Schroeder Industries: Optimal Tank & Filtration Technology
Take your Tank Optimization to the next level with filtration solutions from Schroeder Industries!
Our reservoirs and in-tank filters are engineered with Tank Optimization in mind.
TNK Series Reservoirs
Next Gen De-Aerating Filtration
Request a Quote – Tank Optimization
Don’t let your tank assembly be just an afterthought! Work with our experts and see what Tank Optimization can do for you: