A hydraulic control system includes a first hydraulic cylinder, a second hydraulic cylinder, a fluid supply apparatus, a first control valve bank, a second control valve bank, a third control valve bank, and a first check valve. The first control valve bank is configured to independently control the first hydraulic cylinder; the second control valve bank is configured to independently control the second hydraulic cylinder; and the third control valve bank is configured to synchronously control the first hydraulic cylinder and the second hydraulic cylinder. Synchronous volume control is implemented through series connection of the hydraulic cylinders, and has quite high synchronization precision, which is measured to be up to two percent.

The first piston of the first cylinder and the second piston of the second cylinder are connected so that the first piston and the second piston have the same displacement. The cross-section area of one side of the first piston is the smallest, and the cross-section area on the same side of the second piston is the third smallest. The two air chambers of the first cylinder and the two air chambers of the second cylinder are referred to as a first air chamber, a second air chamber, a third air chamber, and the fourth air in ascending order in the cross-section area. The control valve connects the air pressure source to the first air chamber, connects the second air chamber to the third air chamber, and opens the fourth air chamber to the atmosphere in the forward stroke.

A hydraulic circuit includes a hydraulic power unit, a first cylinder pair coupled with the hydraulic power unit, and a second cylinder pair coupled with the hydraulic power unit in parallel with the first cylinder pair. Re-phasing valves coupled with each cylinder of the first and second cylinder pairs are activated when a respective one of the cylinders reaches one of a fully extended or a fully retracted position. The hydraulic circuit incorporates the serially plumbed, re-phasing cylinders for synchronized movement in a system with multiple pairs of cylinders.

A hydraulic control circuit operable to selectively hydraulically link first and second hydraulic actuators and to bypass that hydraulic link.

A hydraulic system for recovering hydraulic energy, the hydraulic system made of at least: a first actuator for generating hydraulic energy and providing fluid under pressure; a tank line for receiving the fluid under pressure drained from the first actuator; a second actuator driven by the fluid under pressure drained from the first actuator; a recovery line for supplying the fluid under pressure drained from the first actuator. The system further includes a pressure compensating valve which controls flow of fluid in the tank line and maintains a fluid pressure differential across a first directional control valve. The first pressure compensating valve is provided with a first fluid pressure sensing line in communication with the recovery line and a second fluid pressure sensing line in communication with the first actuator.

When hydraulic fluid discharged from a hydraulic actuator is to be recovered for driving a different hydraulic actuator, the recovery frequency is increased to achieve further energy saving. To this end, a pressure increasing circuit 36 is provided in which a communication pressure increasing valve 12 is disposed in a communication passage 26 that connects a bottom side line 23 of and a rod side line 24 a boom cylinder 4. A recovery control valve 11 is controlled such that, when a first operation unit 5 is operated in a boom lowering direction (own weight falling direction of the boom) and a second operation unit 6 is operated simultaneously, only if the pressure at the bottom side of the boom cylinder 4 is higher than the pressure at the arm cylinder side that is a recovery destination of hydraulic fluid, the recovery control valve 11 is opened to recover the flow rate discharged from the bottom side of the boom cylinder 4 to the arm cylinder side.

An energy storage and regeneration system that converts irregular, non-constant, and variable input power to regular, constant, and controlled output power using hydraulics whereby the irregular input power is used to pump hydraulic fluid into an accumulator array where it is stored pressurized. Energy is released in a controlled fashion using a hydraulic motor operated by the pressurized hydraulic fluid from the accumulator array, in accordance with the specified power demand. One or more power units may be deployed depending on the amount of energy required at the output. Each power unit includes a hydraulic motor and associated floating accumulator whose internal pressure is controlled to maintain a substantially constant pressure differential across its associated motor.

The invention relates to a system for hydraulic actuation of multiple consumer units comprising a hydraulic circuit (130) operated by means of a hydraulic motor (122) which actuates a consumer unit (111) wherein, downstream of the first consumer unit (111), the hydraulic circuit (130) has at least one secondary circuit (140, 150) having at least a second consumer unit (114, 118) and arranged before the second consumer unit (114) and a pump (113, 117) directly or indirectly actuated by the first consumer unit (111).

A hydraulic control system includes a first hydraulic cylinder, a second hydraulic cylinder, a fluid supply apparatus, a first control valve bank, a second control valve bank, a third control valve bank, and a first check valve. The first control valve bank is configured to independently control the first hydraulic cylinder; the second control valve bank is configured to independently control the second hydraulic cylinder; and the third control valve bank is configured to synchronously control the first hydraulic cylinder and the second hydraulic cylinder. Synchronous volume control is implemented through series connection of the hydraulic cylinders, and has quite high synchronization precision, which is measured to be up to two percent.

A hydraulic control circuit operable to selectively hydraulically link first and second hydraulic actuators and to bypass that hydraulic link.