Modern Marvels: Hydraulic Force Transforms Society (S11, E17) | Full Episode | History

it allows you to effortlessly control your car  and provides precision maneuvering for the most   advanced military aircraft but this workhorse  of industry is as basic as fluids in motion   now engineering's hidden marvel hydraulics   on modern marbles our industrialized  world depends on hydraulics but hydraulics is so fundamental to our way of  life that we hardly notice it hydraulics has   taken us from the model t to the suv from  kitty hawk to the f-22 raptor hydraulics   provides the muscles that lift steer and drive  excavators that mine earth's precious resources   and is the force behind the machinery that  fabricates the very structure of our cities   hydraulics elevates us thrills us it even picks up our garbage you look at a lot  of applications and we see hydraulics you think   about a car going down the street of course you  have hydraulic power steering hydraulic brakes a   lot of the roofs on those cars the convertible  tops are all hydraulic get an aircraft all the   control surfaces amusement parks a lot of the  rides today there's hydraulic-powered roller coasters go zero to 120 in four seconds hydraulics is the branch of physics that  studies the behavior of liquids at rest   or in motion liquid in motion  is referred to as hydrodynamics civil engineers use this form of  hydraulics in hydroelectric power plants   manipulating the flow of liquid to push turbines   those power plants provide electricity to over  a billion people worldwide the second type of   hydraulics liquids at rest is referred to as  hydrostatics mechanical engineers use this   form of hydraulics to produce force through  the pressurization of incompressible liquids   if you have two pistons within  a closed hydraulic system   any force that is applied to piston a  will be completely transferred to piston b   the power of your blow is transferred to the  other plunger by hydraulic transfer of power   one of the benefits of a closed hydraulic  system is the ability to multiply force   if piston b has a surface area 10 times that of  piston a piston b will move one unit for every 10   units the piston a moves but at 10 times the force  therefore a hundred pounds of force applied to   piston a will supply enough pressure under piston  v to move an object weighing a thousand pounds   remarkable in its simplicity hydraulic  multiplication of force is awesome in   its capability and is what delivers the  brute force for nearly every large machine   in most people's mind they consider  hydraulics the application of high   pressure fluids generally speaking to move large  amounts of weight and generate a lot of force some of the more impressive applications of  hydraulics are just pure raw hydraulic force you look at car crushers as an example it's  unbelievable you'll take five or six cars piled   vertically and they're smashed to just feet and  you have to say how is that done it's hydraulics one of the most common devices that  utilizes hydraulic multiplication of force   is the hydraulic jack when you push the lever up  and down you're actually pushing on a small piston   which pushes hydraulic fluid and this fluid  flows into a larger piston say the small   piston that you're pushing has a surface area  of one square inch but the large piston that's   actually pushing up your car that might have  a surface area of say 10 square inches so for   every pound of force you push with that lever the  hydraulic system multiplies that force 10 times   unfortunately in hydraulics like in  everything else there's no free lunch   so you don't get it for free in order  to get that to work you have to pump 10   times the amount of fluid although the basic  principles behind hydraulics may appear simple   it took many brilliant minds thousands of years  to fully understand the inherent power of fluid the greeks in 250 bc were one of the  earliest societies to look for ways   of controlling the flow of water  inventing many hydraulic devices   some were devised for amusement like this  invention that forced air out of a small   bent tube producing the sound of a bird others  were more useful such as the water clock   the greek who made the most lasting contribution  to hydraulics was the mathematician archimedes   who discovered the first principle of  hydrostatics buoyancy his buoyancy experiment   was basically based on the concept that a material  that is submerged to a water experiences a force   against gravity and that force is known as  pressure he also was the same inventor who said   if you give me a lever long enough and a place to  stand i can move the earth fundamentally that's   the principle of levers and realistically that's  what we're doing with hydraulics on a daily basis   by 30 bc the roman empire had cast its  shadow across the borders of greece   but instead of destroying greek  society the romans learned from it   improving upon several greek inventions  including the water wheel and the aqueduct   the romans they realized that they had to feed  bigger areas then they had to have a system   where they can carry large quantities and  the same time use the concept of gravity   in the aqueducts water flowed swiftly producing  as much as 1300 pounds of pressure per square inch   25 times the standard water pressure of a  city today roman engineers often designed   the aqueducts to end its cisterns which would push  water up through small openings turning the liquid   into a fountain and providing drinking water for  the citizens of rome other aqueducts were sent   to water mills transferring the water's energy  into kinetic energy to grind grain into flour   but roman engineers didn't develop further  hydraulic technology relying instead on the   strength of slave labor in the millennium that  followed the science of hydraulics didn't advance   old technologies such as watermelons  flourish during medieval times   finally in the 17th century french mathematician  bless pascal made a groundbreaking discovery by   multiplying fluid depth by its inherent weight  pascal created the formula to determine fluid   pressure this led to the most important aspect  of hydrostatics multiplication of force pascal's   principle is the basis for all the  work that we do in hydraulics today   by 1795 englishman joseph brahma had put pascal's  principal to work with his hydraulic press   when the first hydraulic systems were used  around the 1800s they did use water as the   hydraulic fluid and water does not make a very  good hydraulic fluid some of the problems it   has it's very thin so it leaks past your seals  back in the 1800s the seals they had were things   like leather and ropes and things of that sort so  if they did seal they didn't seal for very long   the inefficient hydraulic industry  languished but soon after the brahma press   a new discovery in america would lead  indirectly to a new hydraulic technology   the discovery of gold at sutter's mill in 1848 led  to one of the largest human migrations in history desiring a faster quicker way to uncover riches   a new method of gold mining quickly spread  throughout america called hydraulicing and   for the next 50 years hydraulic mining would  literally change the landscape of america   people have recognized for a long time that the  power behind water can be enormous and in the   early mining days in the u.s the gold rush air we  took major advantage this accessing water sources   at much higher elevations miners constructed  wood pipes and attached the ends to nozzles   creating hoses that could shoot water at high  velocity against the california hillsides   the hillsides disintegrated releasing the  gold the scientific principle behind this   effective method of gold mining was established  by swiss mathematician daniel bernoulli in 1738   bernoulli found that if a containment of water is  forced through a smaller opening such as a nozzle   the pressure that builds behind the opening would  increase the water's velocity creating a jet although it's unlikely that the miners were aware  of bernoulli's principle their method of mining   was effective nonetheless the pressures were  on the order of 800 pounds per square inch to   a thousand pounds per square inch it's a thousand  pounds per square inch blasting against raw earth   you clean the soil away in a hurry hydraulic  nozzles called monitors reached 16 feet in length   and could deliver as much as 30 000 gallons of  water a minute in a nine inch stream at its peak   the hydraulic mining industry in california  employed 20 000 people and had returns close   to 100 million dollars in gold the success of  hydraulic gold mining was matched only by its   devastating effect on the environment by 1884 it  was outlawed in california by a federal injunction   although hydraulic gold mining had  come to an end a new kind of gold   black gold was about to bring hydraulics to  the forefront of the industrial revolution daniel bernoulli's father johann bernoulli became  so jealous after his son published his book   hydrodynamica in 1738 that he  wrote his own book on hydraulics   and predated it in a futile attempt  to take credit for his son's findings until the 19th century hydraulic power  was achieved primarily through harnessing   the energy of flowing water this would  change in 1859 with the discovery of oil   unfortunately water has this tendency to turn into  solids at something like 32 degrees fahrenheit   that is it freezes turns into ice and it tends to  boil at about 212 so it tends to have a relatively   narrow operating window oil on the other hand  can have an operating temperature of well below   zero degrees fahrenheit to well above 250  degrees fahrenheit the discovery of a suitable   hydraulic fluid made the hydraulic press an  essential tool on the factory floor and helped   to drive the evolution of america's newest  obsession the automobile hydraulics played a   a crucial part in enabling vehicles to transform  from sort of the hay wagon type of thing   to the ever heavier ever more comfortable ever  more you know livable vehicles that we have today by the early 1900s the automobile industry began  to provide a faster means of travel than the horse   and carriage but this posed a difficult problem  how do you make the motorized carriage stop   in 1904 ransom e olds designed the first  widely used brake system for the automobile   this external brake consisted of a  single flexible stainless steel band   wrapped around a drum on the rear axle  of the car wheel when the brake pedal   was applied a cable would contract the band  gripping the drum and stopping the wheel there was a lot of room for improvement   one of the major flaws of the external brake was  that it had no protection from outside elements   most roads were unpaved and the metal  bands and drums quickly wore down   the external brake was replaced by internal brakes   that relied on steel cables and pulleys and the  strength of the driver to provide enough force   to stop the car strong steel cables provide  powerful unfailing and flexible connections   between the brake pedal and the brake itself of  course as the weight of the vehicles increased   and their speed increased we had to come up  with more effective ways to stop these machines   in 1918 aviation pioneer malcolm lockheed began to  develop a hydraulic brake system for automobiles   using petroleum oil as a lubricant lockheed  designed a hydraulic system that transmitted   fluid pressure against the brake drum  allowing for smoother improved braking ability in 1920 lockheed sold his brake patent to  vincent bendix founder of the bendix corporation a year later the duesenberg became the first  passenger car to come equipped with a four-wheel   hydraulic brake system the way that the early  hydraulic systems for braking worked on cars was   your pedal would push on a piston in a cylinder  full of hydraulic fluid and that would would   push the fluid to each wheel the fluid would  come into another cylinder with two little   pistons that push out against a couple of shoes  and sort of curved shoes that push out onto a   cylindrical drum and when they press on it like  that it creates friction and slows the car down   so suddenly you can transmit a lot of energy  to these individual wheel breaks although the   brakes were a success the rest of the automotive  industry was slow to adapt the american motorist   could was was comfortable with mechanical  brakes you can see here's a cable here's the   linkage it's right out where i can see it and and  to try and and convince this person that you can   push fluid through a line whoa that was kind of  a mind blower so it was a difficult uphill battle   to make that case and they had to sort of do it by  just demonstrating how much more effective it was   another hydraulic application that the automotive  industry was hoping consumers would soon demand   was power steering but the great depression of the  1930s brought its development to a screeching halt   poverty-stricken americans didn't  have the means or the interest   to spend money on the latest automobile gadget to  hit the market by the time the american economy   began to reinvigorate itself in the 1940s another  crippling event was to take hold of america   most of the r d efforts for improving hydraulics  went into the war effort for tanks and vehicles   and ships and things and so really after world  war ii was over and people who had been in the war   got back into the workplace that saw a  real blossoming of the hydraulic industry   the automobile industry slipped into high gear   drivers were ready to go faster than ever  before and detroit was happy to oblige them   those engines were made out of cast iron they were  big and heavy and they were almost exclusively in   the front they were over the steering wheels so  with all that weight it became very difficult   to turn those wheels the technology for  power steering had been developed for the   automobile before world war ii making it  an easy transition for auto manufacturers   just take a hydraulic pump and have this driven  by the engine and the combination of the hydraulic   flow and pressure is what provided the power to  turn the wheels to the left or right if you turn   it to the left all it does is actuate a valve the  valve opens and routes fluid into a piston which   would turn the wheel to the left so power steering  became an absolute godsend and the early ones   they wanted to make themselves known  and so your power steering would be   totally zero effort i mean you could with  your pinky finger steer these gigantic cars since the advent of power steering and brakes  their hydraulic systems have largely remained   the same brakes are now complemented with vacuum  assist making it possible to stop even the largest   suv with just a touch from your foot power  steering also features power assist which   increases the flow of hydraulic fluid based on  the speed with which the steering wheel is turned modern hydraulic applications for the automobile  focus on style and driver comfort you can suspend   a car with metal springs but you can also  put a piston there with with hydraulics   to get the same type of springing effect the  holy grail of suspension is active body control   a feature only found in high-end luxury cars  like the mercedes-benz cl coupe active body   control will keep the car steady and level even  on the sharpest turns or the bumpiest of roads   the system works by placing a hydraulic  plunger on top of the suspension coil   if the car runs over a pothole within  milliseconds sensors located throughout   the car activate the plunger causing  it to extend and balance the car body   but perhaps its most unique feature  is the ability to change suspension   want the feel of a high-end sports car just push  a button and the hydraulics will make it happen although the invention of hydraulic  brakes and power steering helped drive   the automotive business the impact these  innovations had on the construction industry   literally changed the face of the earth vincent bendix founder of bendix breaks  was inspired to develop a better car brick   after his father was hit and killed  by a car with defective cable brakes the greatest example of the brute  strength that hydraulics can deliver   is found in the construction industry over the years the excavators cranes  and trucks that have built our world   have grown exponentially in size achieving unmatched efficiency  and power through hydraulics   if you go to a construction site  you can't help but see hydraulics   it's everywhere it's in virtually every  machine that's on the construction site   and in many cases or probably most cases  because there's just no better way of doing it at a warehouse in youngstown ohio the robin's  company is putting the final touches on two   gigantic tunnel boring machines the drills  are nearly 400 feet long and weigh a hefty   800 tons to move something this massive  there was only one practical alternative   the amount of force we get from the hydraulics  far exceeds what we can get from electrics   without going into great cost hydraulic  gives you more force and power especially   in these type of machines you need that force  to cut the rock as hard as it can be sometimes when the drill is activated  800 gallons of hydraulic   fluid travel through seven miles of  hosing to hundreds of hydraulic components the hydraulic system is capable  of pushing the drill as pistons   at a force of 5250 pounds of pressure per square  inch when we talk about hydraulic pressure   what we're doing is putting force into a cylinder  which uh in turn puts force against a given   component doing the cutting is a 24 foot diameter  drill head that runs on 10 450 horsepower motors   the drill head features 46 19-inch teeth that  will shatter rock at a rate of 25 feet an hour   although electrics power the drill head it's  the hydraulics that makes the cutting possible   behind me you see some curved items we call a  gripper shoe so if we put 5000 pounds of pressure   on that shoe that is giving us enough force to  hold that machine in place so that it doesn't try   to spin in the tunnel the grip shoe transmits four  million pounds of force against a tunnel wall when   the drill is stabilized a second set of cylinders  extend pushing the drill forward at a force of   3 million pounds that shoe weighs about 40 000  pounds and as it moves very smoothly as you see it   just shows you how the hydraulics move that kind  of weight smoothly and steady after inspection   the mammoth drills will be sent to iceland for  the construction of a hydroelectric power plant prodigious construction equipment such  as the robin's tunnel boring machines   represents the unparalleled  power that hydraulics can offer but the history of hydraulics and  construction had a fairly modest beginning   starting with the flatbed truck by 1910 the truck  was altered from a simple transportation vehicle   to a machine that could carry large bulk  materials such as dirt rock and coal   placing these materials into the truck  bed was the job of the steam shovel   unloading them was done  with a mechanical dump body   the construction industry today relies on the  hydraulic cylinder if you consider the dump truck   the early trucks consisted of a winch and pulley  system the operator had to get out of the cab   wind up this this crank to dump the bed of the  truck today they sit in the cab they push a button   the hydraulics extends a ram from the cylinder  and empties the bed of the truck the hydraulic   cylinder is a method of converting the  hydraulic energy to a workable energy in   a back and forth motion and that's really  all it does is it moves in or it moves out   this is the popular hydraulic type which operates  easily and efficiently under all loads the end   gate is double acting and is operated by control  level the increased efficiency and reliability of   the hydraulic dump truck resonated throughout  the construction industry but the impact of   the great depression and world war ii stifled  the growth of hydraulic construction machines   after the war new hydraulic pumps that  were designed to increase fluid pressure   for tanks and aircraft were introduced  to the revitalized construction industry coupled with the advent of power  steering and hydraulic brakes   manufacturers started to build bigger heavier  and more powerful machines than ever before   the construction industry has to move great  quantities of earth so you could have 10 backhoes   loading 10 trucks or you could have one backhoe  loading one large truck and when you did that   you had to move the same amount of earth so that  means the piece of equipment had to be much larger today construction vehicles are some  of the largest machines in the world   with nearly all of them utilizing hydraulics  including the caterpillar 330cl excavator   the weight of this arm is in the  neighborhood of 10 000 pounds   we'd have quite a bit of problem moving that  arm efficiently without the use of hydraulics hydraulics also makes it possible to  maneuver the liebherr t282b mining truck and its 400 ton payload capacity   well hydraulic cylinders provide the power  to lift the bed nearly 50 feet into the air cranes rely on hydraulics too  taylor machine works 80 foot   long and 80 foot wide gantry grain called big red uses hydraulics to lift cargo containers  that weigh upwards of 90 000 pounds   but hydraulic construction machines  don't always focus on strength and power   timber jack's tree forester uses hydraulics to  walk through the forest with the grace of a dancer but you might want to watch your toes around this  ballerina whether it's walking dumping digging or   drilling the environment of a construction site is  one of the dirtiest places on earth yet the most   identifiable component of the hydraulic machine  the cylinder never appears to lose its luster   any kind of contamination within the hydraulic  system is going to have a devastating effect upon   the system itself the cylinders have a wiper on  the end of the cylinder head that has the cylinder   rod retracts it cleans off the excess dirt so  when it extends again it's as though it were new but hydraulics has not just  revolutionized machines on the ground   it's revolutionized machines in the sky too from the latest military planes to  the future of commercial air travel speed boat racing pioneer garfield wood  invented the hydraulic lift in 1911   as a means to unload coal from  truck beds more efficiently   over the last 100 years the aerospace industry  has transformed from this to this the astounding   leap in aircraft technology would not have  been possible without the power of hydraulics   the airplane really shows a prime example of one  of the advantages of hydraulics to where you can   have a single place where you generate your  power through the engine and transmit this   through hydraulic lines to wherever you need it  whether it's the back of the plane or in the wings inside the body of a passenger aircraft  is an intricate system of pumps and hoses   the transfer is the highly pressurized fluid that  commands nearly every phase of flight control most of these systems operate  by what is known as fly-by-wire   in a typical fly-by-wire system flight command is  controlled electrically but powered hydraulically when a pilot wants to move the rudder the command  is input into a computer the signal is then sent   electrically by wire to the hydraulic system  this system consists of one reservoir per engine   that supplies fluid to two pumps per engine the  pump sends fluid pressurized at three thousand   pounds per square inch through metal tubing that  extends the remaining length of the fuselage   where it connects to an actuator  pushing a piston and moving the rudder this powerful and efficient system  of fluid pressure transference   is a huge contrast to the one used by orville  and wilbur wright over a hundred years ago   the wright brothers aircraft had no hydraulics  on it it's basically controlled was by a lever   and cables or pulleys and this allowed  them to have the three axis of control   during world war one the slow-moving dual-wing  airplanes function similarly to early wright   brother flyers relying on the strength of  the aviator to move cables and pulleys for   flight control those are small aircraft so  therefore it was very easy for the pilot   to control the motion of the actuators  simply by moving the stick back and forth   after world war one the military looked at ways to  increase the speed and performance of the airplane engineers focused their attention on the  landing gear all landing gear before were fixed   the navy decided to do some tests in which they  actually raised the landing gear through a crank   and pulley arrangement and they found that they  could reduce the drag about 30 percent but it   was very intensive and therefore hydraulics was  looked at as a way of doing this very effectively   the first hydraulically operated landing gear  system was produced in 1929 opening the door for   hydraulic applications on aircraft in the years  that followed planes continued to grow in size   and speed increasing pilot difficulty to command  the aircraft using the stick and pulley system   to be able to move the elevators for example or  the rudder or the airlords trying to do it by hand   or the conventional pulley and cable system most  of those aircraft would be into the ground or the   water with the success of hydraulically operated  landing gear military engineers followed the   lead set by the automobile industry installing  hydraulic brakes aboard all military aircraft   soon everything from flaps and rudders to  gun turrets and bombay doors were utilizing   hydraulics to actuate although the flight  control system still required the pilot   to move cables and pulleys the actuators now  moved with hydraulic multiplication of force   but the planes of world war ii  needed to perform maneuvers faster   and swifter than ever before the pressures  have to increase to be able to allow   the pilot to move the surfaces to do what he  wanted to do you needed a new type of pump the gear pumps which were being used on  most military aircraft were inefficient   and would leak at high pressures  hydraulic pioneer harry vickers   designed a piston pump which quickly became  the predominant pump for world war ii aircraft   with these new piston pumps fluid pressure  increased from 1000 psi to 3000 psi   but this increase in pressure also added  stress to the hydraulic hoses and sealants if a hydraulic fluid would spray onto a engine  manifold it would certainly cause a fire   and many of the fires that you've seen in general  those were hydraulic leaks that started the fires   many times a hydraulic leak would not be something  to think of with dripping it's high pressure so it   would leak out of a hose or a fitting it would  often come out as a spray if there was a fire   already started the leaking oil would feed  the fire and you'd have catastrophic events to combat this the military changed to a less  flammable kerosene oil called mill h 5606   a new sealant was designed as  well known simply as the o-ring   the o-ring has a unique ability to be able to  compress to fill a space and it's able to do   that very efficiently it's a donut shaped piece  of elastomer and it became the seal of choice   for most of the products that are in a hydraulic  system by the end of world war ii innovations and   aeronautic hydraulics found an easy transition  into the burgeoning commercial aircraft industry   commercial airlines discovered that  they could also take advantage of the   hydraulics where their aircraft would be made  larger lighter and able to hold more people   so by having these aircraft that could carry  more people it made airline travel more practical   the mil-age kerosene-based fluids used in military  aircraft were deemed unsafe by the faa in 1948   aircraft manufacturers addressed this  concern with the development of skydraw 7000   this fluid was a phosphate ester and  is still in use today phosphate esters   are a class of synthetic hydraulic fluids  which have very good lubricating qualities   in addition they tend to be fire resistant  except for the fluid the hydraulic functions   of early commercial aircraft were almost  identical to those used on military planes   hydraulics actuated the landing gear moved flaps  and rudders and controlled the brakes because of   the size and weight of commercial airliners  hydraulic pressure increased to 3000 psi   the same pressure already used on most military  aircraft and construction machines although this   increase in fluid pressure gave pilots the muscle  to operate actuators through cables and pulleys   by the 1980s it was time for a change the problem  with the cable and pulley is as surfaces become   larger and larger it is very difficult even  to give the correct feel electronics can make   this decision much quicker today's aircraft have  much greater performance capabilities and have   to do things like moving the surface almost  instantaneously fly-by-wire hydraulic systems   continue to dominate the flight control of even  the most advanced commercial and military aircraft   the hydraulics aboard the f-22 fighter  plane are pretty much state of the art   they have all of the primary flight controls  the landing gear the weapons bay doors open   very quickly and close very quickly to  launch missiles the propulsion system   depends very heavily on hydraulics in the f-22  for control of the inlets and the exhaust nozzles the biggest advancement in  hydraulic technology for aircraft   is the development of the eha  or electric hydrostatic actuator originally developed in the early 90s the eha  contains all the components of a hydraulic system   in one small package by placing ehas  next to aircraft control surfaces   designers eliminate thousands of feet of hydraulic  tubing and hundreds of pounds of weight this dha   is considered cutting edge technology because it  removes the distribution elements that are part   of a conventional hydraulic system there are two  electric motors that work in tandem we also have   hydraulic reservoirs to capture the thermal  expansion contraction required to power the   hydraulic pumps of this system the linkage here is  attached directly to the uh flight control surface the first aircraft to use eha  technology for primary flight control   will be the f-35 joint strike fighter the first commercial aircraft to feature ehas  in this case for secondary flight control   will be the new airbus a380 boasting a length  of 239 feet and a wingspan nearly as long as   a football field this is the largest  commercial airplane ever to be built   new hydraulic technology had to be created  to control an aircraft that weighs well   over 300 tons certainly the a380 offered the  hydraulic system designer several major challenges   if we were going to use the conventional  hydraulic system concepts 3000 psi for example   the pumps would be massive the lines fittings  and hoses would be massive a solution to this   was to increase the pressure not from 3000 to  4000 but to take it to the next step 5000 psi but as the aerospace industry continues to  look for ways to improve upon the efficiency   and safety of flight control systems engineers are  investigating the idea of using electric motors to   actuate control surfaces thus eliminating  hydraulics completely from flight control   before that happens a formidable hurdle lies  ahead engineers need to develop a practical   motor that can create the needed force to  actuate the surface controls efficiently but hydraulics not only shapes our future it  brings the past to life prehistoric dinosaurs   animate with the help of hydraulics the airbus  a380 will feature four independent primary flight   control systems each of these systems is capable  of operating the aircraft should the others fail   creating a redundancy system unequaled  by any military or commercial plane hydraulics not only plays a key role in our  work lives it plays a role in our play lives too universal studios in hollywood california is home   to some of the most cutting-edge  hydraulic attractions in the world you would not be able to have any of  these attractions move this much weight   and be this reliable without hydraulics  it just would never happen one of the more   complex hydraulic attractions at universal  studios is earthquake the ride passengers   entering this stage are given an idea of what  it's like to endure a massive seismic event the hydraulic system for earthquake  runs on just two 50 horsepower motors   the system works by sending  fluid through hydraulic pumps   to a series of accumulators that store the  fluid at pressure keeping it ready for each show   underneath the floor of earthquake a dark  cavern is home to dozens of hydraulic cylinders   moving the 20 000 pound floor bed in linear  and lateral movements the cylinders create the   feeling of an 8.3 tumbler but that's only  one of the hydraulic effects on this ride   as the show's going on we  have a large slab that'll fall   it's got four big hydraulic cylinders behind it it  is probably somewhere around nine thousand pounds   and also we have a train that comes out  and crashes right in front of the tram   it's driven out by hydraulic ram when the tram  exits the stage the hydraulic cylinders retract   carefully putting all the props  back to their original positions   you have to keep the show exactly  the same every single time earthquakes hydraulics are very sophisticated   universal's terminator 2 3d also features  several precision hydraulic effects   hydraulics control the platforms that raise  and lower different characters onto the stage   and they also animate the six  gun-toting cyberdyne robots   using 3000 psi pumps to actuate  cylinders in the head torso and arms but the attraction that utilizes the  most hydraulic effects at universal   is jurassic park the ride visitors  cruise through prehistoric tropics   encountering a bevy of life-size  and life-like dinosaurs   including a 40-foot tall ultra sore that  uses 15 hydraulic cylinders in the neck alone this particular figure we just saw the  oil comes in here this is a pressure line   it's set at 3000 psi the hydraulic module here  will distribute the oil to the figure itself which   has the one we saw is just a torso and head it  has six separate moves six separate cylinders and   it's all powered by hydraulics after encountering  several dinosaurs the ride drops another hydraulic   throw so to speak we use hydraulics on the  falling car for two reasons really it's it's   more controllable than any other kind of power and  it's also less expensive energy-wise the cylinder   is actually hooked up to a block and tackle what  that does is that increases the motion of the jeep   compared to the cylinder the jeep will move 32  feet while cylinder will only move nine so all   we need is a nine foot cylinder to get that much  movement that increases the force on the cylinder   but the hydraulics overcomes that and it's no  problem at all then there's water world which   uses a hydraulic catapult to launch a 2 000  pound airplane 60 feet across a man-made lake   and of course there's old bruce the shark with so many hydraulic attractions   it's no surprise that even the transit  universal run with the help of hydraulics whether it's entertainment or construction when something big needs to be  moved hydraulics still remains the power of choice   at least for now but the continuing advancement  of electronic systems may eventually lead   to electric motors replacing hydraulics as  the power source leader in force applications   i believe the future of hydraulics  is a combination of electronics   and hydraulics in some applications hydraulics  may be phased out but we will never see the   power density from the electronic systems  that we see from the hydraulics group just can't fathom any other technology that will  be able to generate hundreds of thousands of   foot pounds of torque or the thousands of tons of  force needed to drill a hole in through a mountain   or under a lake whether or not hydraulics  is supplanted by another power application   is yet to be decided but until that day  comes when something big has to be moved when a high amount of power is needed with precision control hydraulics  will remain the power of choice you

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Length: 45min 12sec (2712 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021