Manifold

Company produces hydraulic systems for airport ground support systems such as cherry pickers, lift equipment, etc. Leaks are supposed to be non-existant.

Installed -04 and -06 Zero-Leak Gold socket head plugs. The metal-to-metal is the primary seal. The O-ring back up in located below the taper under the head of the ZLGP and therefore was not exposed to any paint. Both of the ZLGP seals are internal to the port.

The ZLGP do not back out, thus removing the potential safety and environmental threat.

Used NPT hydraulic manifold plugs for years because they always have and everybody uses them too. The NPT plugs were meant to be used for one-time installation, but repeated removal and reinstallation was resulting in leaking ports and scrapped manifolds due to a stripped port.

A decision to install socket head -02 and -04 Zero-Leak Gold Plugs was made after a customer complained of leaks and manifold damage.

All new manifolds are being offered with Zero-Leak Gold Plugs instead of NPT.

Certain ports in manifolds are required to be sealed. Various types of permanent or expansion type hydraulic manifold plugs are used. The success of them obtaining a proper seal is dependent in part on the correct installation process and did not leave much room for operator error or faulting installation. If the plugs are not installed properly, it may be possible that once pressure is introduced into the system that sooner or later the seal may fail and release the sealing device with all the force of the pressure it attempted to contain. System failure, equipment damage or personal injury were distinct possibilities with the accompanying liability claims. It was also noted that when this type of plug was used it was not always possible to thoroughly flush a manifold during the cleaning process because of residue or particle build up in the interior cavity of the port below the plug.

The -02 socket head Zero-Leak Gold Plug has been installed for this application. The Zero-Leak Gold Plug fits in the standard SAE -02 port. Operator error has been eliminated and the Zero-Leak Gold Plug will not leak. It may be removed when it is necessary to completely flush the manifold. The Zero-Leak Gold Plug may then be reinstalled without damage to the O-ring on the plug nor to the threads of the port or the Zero-Leak Gold Plug. No chemical sealants are required and therefore any system contamination potential is eliminated.

Safer more reliable seals are made and the manifolds may be cleaned properly as needed.

Zero-Leak Gold Plugs were used instead of the SAE J514 plugs.

Zero-Leak Gold Plugs were used instead of the SAE J514 plugs.

The leaks and possible system contamination problems have been eliminated. The total cost associated with the plugs has been reduced. The customer can now replace any formerly used plugs that may be causing leak problems in the field with the ZLGP by simply removing the leaking plug and putting in the ZLGP. EPCO's excellent ZLGP shipping record has enabled the producers to reduce their overall plug inventory that had previously been necessary to protect them from their suppliers' long lead times or outages.

Plugs were being used in a typical manifold application in association with hydraulic press operation.

Once the basics of the Zero-Leak Gold Plug multiple seals and zero-leak performance were explained, a purchase order was issued for -06 and -08 socket head ZLGP with the following shipping instructions: "I don't care, just get them to me".

The ZLGP were installed as replacements for the existing SAE style plugs. It was apparent that the unique design of the ZLGP protected the O-ring back up seal from being damaged. The installer indicated that the drip pans should have been full two weeks after the ZLGP were in place, but there's no oil in the drip pans. "We're calling it a success".

The plugs were used in manifolds that contained hydrogen.