Hydraulic test bench : principle and operation

What is a hydraulic test bench ?

The hydraulic test bench is essential in the industrialisation of products. Also known as a “test bench”, a hydraulic test bench is a hydraulic system that allows a product to be put into use in order to observe and measure its behaviour.

Widely used in industry, the hydraulic application test rig verifies and/or validates product functionality throughout the manufacturing process. It allows to determine the hydraulic and mechanical performances of the hydraulic networks and the equipments which compose it.

It can, for example, validate the technical characteristics of taps, mixers, flushes or shower columns, in the case of a test bench for sanitary fittings. Industrial test benches are also used in many other applications, for example in the automotive, nuclear, construction and aeronautics industry.

The tests performed vary according to the nature of the product to be tested. Test benches are often custom designed by manufacturers and are adapted to each product range.

What are the different types of hydraulic test stands ?

There are several types of test benches depending on the nature and life cycle of the product to be tested:

• Performance test bench, or “characterisation test bench”: this allows the hydraulic performance of a product to be measured and adjusted. Hydraulic performance test benches are used to verify or define the maximum technical use characteristics of a product according to various criteria: flow rate, pressure, temperature, tightness, sensitivity, etc.
• Endurance test bench, also called fatigue test bench: it is used to check the life and reliability characteristics of a product. he number of test cycles can reach several million (flow rate, pressure, temperature) under variable atmospheric and climatic conditions.
• Control test bench, or “validation bench”: it verifies and validates the technical characteristics of a product during the production phase. The test bench makes it possible to check that the product’s performance meets the design specifications before it is marketed.

Hydraulic test benches are used to test the hydraulic components of sanitary and industrial equipment in accordance with the procedures in force, the standards or the certifications.

How does a hydraulic test bench work ?

A hydraulic test bench can be semi-automatic or automatic. A semi-automatic test bench guides an operator to carry out the measurements, whereas an automatic test bench carries out the test automatically and autonomously.

Automatic hydraulic test benches are controlled by a PC via software that runs various scenarios: test temperature, product position in relation to an instrument. The software records the results of the calculations and measurements, then publishes the results in a file.

o optimise the performance of a test bench, the software used must be easy to use, and the interface must be intuitive and ergonomic. In the context of an industrial process, the user interface that connects a person to the test bench is called the Human Machine Interface (HMI).

In the production phase, the test bench is assembled, and a technical file is drawn up to accompany it. Adjustments are made to ensure the quality of the hydraulic test bench.

Manufacturers benefit from many advantages by carrying out automatic tests. Testing reduces errors and cuts down on time-consuming manual tasks. Companies benefit from the economic advantages as well as from optimised productivity.

LF Technologies test benches

An expert in the field of high precision engineering, LF Technologies designs and manufactures hydraulic test benches for sanitary and industrial equipment and components.

The LF technologies teams are able to design a tailor-made hydraulic system adapted to your needs and specifications. The hydraulic test benches allow all types of tests to be carried out (tightness, pressure, performance, endurance, etc.) and guarantee compliance with the standards and certifications in force.