The four central hydraulic units had been sitting in storage for nearly three years. They had originally been purchased from Hydrotech, Inc. in 1986 to operate several tire curing presses for Goodyear’s now defunct Union City, Tennessee plant.
In 2014, executives at Goodyear needed more capacity from their Fayetteville, North Carolina plant. One of the solutions was to bring those old hydraulic units back into use. As each unit can supply four to five presses, that meant up to 20 additional presses could be up and running.
However, the central hydraulic units were nearly 30 years old and, as a result, no longer fit Goodyear’s more modern presses. Without these operational presses, tires would be backed up on the production line as tire curing is the final step before the tires are tested.
Downtime was the enemy, costing Goodyear money and delaying shipments to distributors.
Executives at Goodyear had a choice. Either delay the plan for increasing capacity at the Fayetteville plant by taking the time and money to engineer and purchase new hydraulic units or see if someone could update and refurbish the existing ones.
The executives went back to the original manufacturer or the units: Hydrotech Inc. and its Service & Repair Division.
Hydrotech’s Service & Repair Division was able to make the central hydraulic units fully operational again.
The central hydraulic units were in such rough condition that only the tank reservoir was salvageable. It was sandblasted, acid dipped, and alkaline dipped to prevent erosion in the future.
But Hydrotech did more than just replace components. After nearly 30 years, the units were closer to technological relics than they were advance technology. Hydrotech consolidated the inner workings with smaller, more powerful hydraulic parts. Many of the hydraulic lines were removed as they were no longer necessary.
Hydrotech also modernized some of the plumbing as well as changed out the combination of components. This made the central hydraulic units more powerful and more energy efficient.
The entire process took only two weeks from inspection to completion. Goodyear’s decision to repair instead of replace saved them the cost of buying a new tank and the engineering costs of a new design. More importantly, it saved them from unnecessary downtime that could have hurt relationships with distributors, wasted plant space, and limited revenue.
Many companies like Goodyear have large hydraulic units that power critical machinery. But cost and space limitations prevent them from having backups or spares. As a result, it’s essential to reduce downtime and get machinery up and running as fast as possible.
Hydrotech Service is dedicated to remanufacturing and repairing your hydraulic units and systems quickly.