Bigger, stronger, more powerful: the requirements made of the assemblies are rising inexorably in all areas with hydraulic applications. The hydraulic lines must keep up as well. Whether in industrial vehicles, which must perform increasingly complex logistical tasks quicker and quicker, or in cranes, which must lift increasingly heavier loads ever higher and farther.

For construction machines, ContiTech provides complex line systems such as hydraulic hose lines for pressures of up to 420 bar, as well as fuel and oil lines.

Special pipeline connections up to size 8, and suction hose applications are specially designed for industrial use. For intake area vacuum applications, ContiTech offers a special suction hose with a small bending radius.

The combination of steel and rubber allows precise geometries and vibration damping. The hose functions as a return and suction hose in vehicle and machine construction, and is temperature-resistant from -35 to 80°C (even up to 100°C for short periods). The special feature of the hose: It is very flexible and facilitates minimal bending radii of just 70 and 100millimetres. As a support frame, the hose has a steel wire helix in its core, preventing the material from contracting at negative pressure (-0.9bar).

Many mobile heavy-duty cranes are fitted with hydraulic hoses and fittings from ContiTech because their high dependability and resistance to aging perfectly measures up to these special requirements. The ease of processing hoses is also a handling advantage for manufacturers who customise their hoses for their own systems.

The company offers individual design options for various line systems for industrial vehicle applications. This includes hydraulic hoses for hydrostatic propulsion, pre-shaped fuel hoses made of polyurethane and polyamide, dual hoses made of plastic for hydraulic lift-mast control as well as lift-mast tubes in various sizes.

Lifting gear

ContiTech has also developed special hydraulic hoses for high-pressure industrial applications, such as lifting gear for industrial vehicles. These hydraulic hoses have a stable, yet highly flexible, internal steel wire reinforcement, making them ideal for ultra-tight spaces. A bending radius of a mere 42millimetres and a pressure of up to 250bar is nowadays no longer a problem for a hydraulic hose with a nominal width of 8.

ContiTech's hose line concepts employ high-tech materials that measure up to the stringent design requirements for agricultural machines. These include low-permeation air-conditioning lines, quick-release couplings as well as hydraulic steering-assist hose lines.

Multiple lines are used in constructing tractors and fork lifts in particular – an area in which customer-specific installation situations are commonplace for suppliers. ContiTech offers its multiple lines as a compact unit with a range of connection options. This system prevents leaks, minimises maintenance and thus significantly increases the productivity in manufacturing the device.

For some time now, ContiTech has fitted these two, as well as other hose dimensions, with a newly developed high-pressure plug connection, which is becoming more and more established on the market. They facilitate fast, space-saving installation of lines while ensuring maximum safety for the customers. After all, ContiTech's PA/PU hoses last an entire vehicle service life.

Designers of high-pressure hydraulic systems have long dreamed of using plug connections instead of threaded connections. In addition to the clear simplification of the connection process for hoses and pipelines, it creates extra space. These plug connections mean that tight and complicated installation conditions are no longer a problem.

The advantages of this innovation become particularly clear in a small, maneuverable and powerful forklift. The advantages include safety, reliability and functionality with great pressure resistance, as well as suitability for use in a great range of temperatures, resistance against movement as well as shocks and vibrations, rapid installation and disconnection, as well as the ability to use the plug connections for difficult installation conditions.

Among the customer requirements incorporated on development were simple, quick and secure connection plugging and releasing, even after years of operation, as well as allowing connection directly to the assembly and the associated additional savings.

The high-pressure plug-in systems by ContiTech make ideal variable components in modular systems such as hydraulic systems (eg steering, gearshift control, clutches and chassis), air-conditioning and fuel systems or oil cooling. They withstand pressures of up to 315 bar (with at least four times the safety) and temperatures ranging from -40 to 180 °C.

The demand in the industrial sector is expanding – even beyond Europe’s borders. To ensure that customers in the Asian region also have access to proven technology, ContiTech set up a production facility for industrial lines in the ContiTech Fluid Grand Ocean plant in Changchun (China). This plant supplies construction equipment manufacturers and industrial equippers like Atlas Copco, Atlas Terex, Linde and others.

ContiTech Techno-Chemie is also responding to the enormous growth in the industrial line demand in Germany by investing in a new, larger plant in the vicinity of the German capital.

“This gives us space to grow further,” reports Markus Murk, head of the Industrial Lines segment. In effect, he expects a continuation of the current upswing, which he attributes not only to a general improvement in the economy but very specifically to the fact that the machine construction industry has so many orders at the moment.

Thanks to the space gained, a CNC bending centre has already been set up. In this centre, very large hydraulic tubes up to 60 mm in diameter and 6 m in length for excavators and other industrial applications can be bent.

In the new Hoppegarten plant near Berlin, a separate production station was set up for the Total Line Care concept as well.

It allows ContiTech to further establish themselves as a full-service provider, from the development and design through to the complete installation of tubing and hose lines in construction machines. Initial projects in this area are the assembly of excavator arms and cab floors.

ContiTech supplies the customer with pre-assembled excavator arms and fully assembled cab floors on which the entire hydraulic system has already been mounted. This saves excavator manufacturers the job of having to completely assemble the units in their own plants. They can use the resulting free capacities for other areas of production to meet the ever-growing demand.

Depending on what is needed, ContiTech receives drawings or samples of the excavator arms from the construction machine manufacturer and then designs the pipelines as 3D models. ContiTech is able to equip excavation arms with up to 12 pipelines each.

Six hundred cab floors are also being assembled for the customer this year, with ContiTech Fluid supplying all the hose lines for the hydraulics involved. Previously, the customer had several suppliers, but now he only has to deal with one.

Mario Töpfer is with ContiTech AG, Hanover. Germany. www.contitech.de