Afternoon, I have a 2011 ecr 305 Volvo excavator. I have a hammer on it, halfway through the day the hammer slows down. The people I purchased the hammer from think it may be the pressure relief on the machine. When I first installed the hammer I had a guy out to set it up he said you could do it all on the console. But I can only seem to find the flow adjustment. Anybody have any thoughts?
Good day Enter the basic screen - select setup > select X1 work tool (X1 is hammer) - select change scrool to pressure with the arrow keys select and using the arrow keys scrool to the required pressure.Hit select once and then ESC. A hammer with slow blow rate is more like;y a flow issue. Kind regards Uffex
Thank you Uffex, I was in there could only find the flow rate.
The hammer runs good in the morn. Slows down in the middle of the day the machine still has lots of power.
Even after the hammer slows down.
Good day It could be that your machine is one without that option, (sfrs4 check this machine out what options it has.) It appears to be a temperature related issue, the flows & pressures are not prone to self adjustments, compare the temperature when it is running good see if we can narrow down the issue. What hammer are you running ?
You need to post the serial number for sfrs to check
I will get the serial number for you. Thank you. It’s a 155 dema rock hammer.
The hammer is warm to the touch but not hot. Also the machine seems to not lose power.
VCERCR305J00110131
In my experience, 9 times out of 10 the relief is set too low. I see this especially on machines that have a thumb, many folks think you can just hook up a hammer and go. Normally a thumb is set right at the pressure that will just barely fire a hammer.
Is the machine equipped with single or bi-directional option? Follow the return pipe, back, does it go through a filter and back to tank or does it go back to the MCV? Is the hammer set on toggle or push? Are you using the hammer properly? 3 second burst, 5 seconds cool. Are you greasing the tool point often enough or does it have auto lube? Have you noticed an abnormal increase in oil temperature? The "guy" who did set up, was he a dealer tech? Did he hook up a flowmeter to the end of the stick in place of the tool? As 92U 3406 pointed out. You could be over-pressured. Most thumb and grapple run at 2500 psi where most hammers I have seen want to peak around 1600-2100. If the "guy" never had a flowmeter in line, it wasn't properly set.
Wow , 2276-2560 psi operating pressure. That's quite a stout little hammer. 180-240 lpm. Do you have the ability to gauge the return oil pressure?
The hammer runs fine just later in the day it slows up. I recently put a new accumulator diaphragm in it.
I don’t have the ability to gauge it, but I can probably hear something up?
Is it maintaining the nitrogen charge?
it is maintaining a charge in both the head and the accumulator
Are you familiar with the service screens in the monitor?
I’ll check it again tomorrow morning. The tech for the hammer company seems to think it’s the pressure relief.
I seem to only be able to adjust the flow on the screen
The oil temp seems to be fine the hammer is warm to the touch but no more so that the cylinders world be after running the machine. The hammer is greased. When the hammer slows down there is no noticeable change in the hydraulic power on the machine. The hammer still hits hard just slower.
The hammer is set up on toggle
So, is it with the joystick, the pedal or both?
On the joystick, though I haven’t tried the pedal. To be honest.
So press once, hammer runs til you push the button again? That's no good, should be on push. Again 3 seconds at a time. If you haven't broke in 3 seconds, time to move your point of impact.
I will in the morning.
No, you push the toggle then let it go and it stops
Ok, in service mode, you can monitor your pump pressure, you can also monitor the mA to the pwm valve which controls your option spool. Get an idea of which is falling off.
I assume that is available in the screen some how?
Having only flow adjustment is common on the C models in North America. It's an expensive option that was just coming around then. It's probably more prevalent on newer machines. Anyhow, I looked up your hammer, it seems to like 2500 psi, so unless you had some crazy exotic attachment hooked up, you 'should be' fine. Just call the "guy" and tell him you want it flowed, not just "set up" Those numbers in the display are theoretical, what it should be if the machine and oil and all the filters are new.
Scroll down to the wrench/ spanner symbol. Press and hold the enter key for a few seconds, it will say,"entering service mode" once it changes, you can navigate around using the arrows and enter keys. Play around and learn about your machine.
That makes sense. I wondered how he got the pressure relief number. I wasn’t there when he set it up. Something else broke on another site I had to go fix. The machine is set up with a bunch of attachments the guy I bought it from had a demo outfit so it’s plumbed for everything. A shear, crusher, hammer. It had them in the screen setup.
Oh! That’s fantastic, I appreciate that a lot. This machine is one of the newer pieces of gear I have. So I’m not well schooled on it. I’ve repaired a lot of gear but most of the stuff I’ve had was pretty old school.
I’m certainly willing to learn, I appreciate all the help.
So, it's obviously set up for bi-directional flow. Lets just verify in tool profile that its only shows one way. Just to be safe. Then, if it starts falling off again later in the day, try the pedal, see if there's a difference.
That makes perfect sense, I’ll check the set up in the morn and the nitrogen pressures, which I checked twice during the day. And they were good. I will check the nitrogen in the morn again before use. Thank you very much for the advice.
Most hammers I deal with run at around 2,200 PSI. From what I've seen most hammer manufacturers seem to spec a relief setting of about 800 PSI over the operating pressure. I always say defer to your manual because there are always exceptions. Problem with setting it at the hammer's operating pressure is that it will tend to want to dump some of that flow over the relief.
From my personal experience, don't waste your time calling a dealer tech out to set up a machine. Call a mechanic with a flowmeter who actually knows what they're doing.
Well, I'm a dealer tech, and I pretend to know a little bit.
Not saying all are bad but we've had to follow behind quite a few who did a setup and found that nothing was at all close to what it needed to be in terms of pressure/flow.
I wish you were closer to me. lol
I was asked, so here is the build sheet, probably late to the party.
Thank you sfrd It appears this machine is not equiped with electronic pressure control. Kind regards Uffex
Better late than never, thank you very much.
Nitrogen is good in the back head and accumulator. This photo is all that comes up on the service part. No place to view parameters.
Go to home, from home screen , scroll down to service. Press and HOLD the enter key until the screen says entering service mode. Then you can navigate around
Just here running it now, still seems slow and lacking a bit a power.
The hammer or the machine?
Ohhhhhh this is great!
Ohhhhhh this is great!
First photo is with machine hammering. Second is at idle
The hammer.
Thank you very Uffex
Values look good, looks like nearly 80-85% of pump one oil being used for hammer.
So I called the mechanic who set it up. He checked the relief by closing the shut off for the hammer and cycling it. I just did the same. the spec for the hammer calls for for 220 bar. I had 226.6bar and it spiked at aprox 228 bar.
Is 80-85% typical to run the attachment.
I will run it until it warms up and do that test again
That's theoretical % of pump capacity, depending on preset volume desired. That's why a flowmeter is so important. Deadhead is not running. Flow @ pressure is what a hammer relies on. Your hammer doesn't run to stall, it runs.
I’ve ran it the oil temp is 39 C the hammer has slowed down to on hit per push the hoses are starting to jump a bit. I’m going to check the nitrogen then I think I’m going to remove the quick couplers to see if one of those is causing trouble.
Trying to locate a guy with a flow to come check. I just did the pressure relief test again it is still in spec but down to 220 bar with the oil temp up
I found the problem!!! One of the threaded quick couplers had an issue it was restricting flow out of the hammer.
I found the problem!!! One of the threaded quick couplers had an issue it was restricting flow out of the hammer. Thank you everyone for all the help. I greatly appreciate it!
That is good news, we use straight JIC hose and fittings for the option. It's messy, but it works.
That’s what I had, but got tired of the mess, I guess I’ll just have to put up with it.
I just looked at the most common hammers I deal with and they spec the relief setting to be 65 bar higher than operating pressure. Again I'd look at what the hammer manufacturer says to set the relief to but personally I think your relief is set a tad low.
IIRC, and it was quite recent, @92U 3406 posted a link somewhere to the self-sealing couplers that he recommended for hammer use. According to him they were the only brand that worked worth a damn. See post #12. HeavyEquipmentForums
Were those the Italian Stucci ones?
The relief is supposed to be 3190
220 bar I’m having a guy check that out tomorrow. After I took the quick coupler out the hammer ran like a top.
I’ll check out the Italian one the ones I had on it pricey enough. But apparently not good enough
The PSI to Bar conversion got lost in translation somewhere between my ears. Never mind, If it hits ok now you're good to go.
Good day A word of caution, the C series option relief valve has a default of high value in comparison earlier models had a default of the lower value causing a pressure reduction when the machine had an electronic issue. This made for a differing pressure adjustment procedure. Kind regards Uffex