Digital Displacement® for industrial hydraulics

Digital Displacement® technology

Most hydraulic pumps today have the same basic control mechanism that was first patented in 1893. The variable-angle swash plate pump has been a reliable way to transmit fluid power for over 120 years. Efforts have been made to digitize the mechanism with feedback and electronic control, but the underlying principle has limited benefits.

Digital Displacement® technology is a natively digital hydraulic innovation. It utilizes a radial piston machine which enables and disables cylinders in real time, using ultra-fast mechatronic valves.

These intelligent, digital controls mean a digitally-enabled machine is highly controllable and extremely efficient. The net result is:

• Radically lower energy losses (typically less than a third of swashplate machines);
• Dramatically faster response (typically ten times faster);
• Silent operation and reduction of annoying, high-frequency noise

Individual cylinders are only called into action when required to meet the load demanded, resulting in a pump with efficiency over 90 percent. The control of individual cylinders allows a single pump to have multiple independently-controllable services providing system innovators a platform to invent new architectures to unlock the capabilities of digital hydraulics.

By replacing a mechanical or hydraulic device with one which is electronically and digitally controlled, new possibilities of flow metering, response, system control, diagnostics (self-healing) and automation are now possible. The pump is able to create real time data for live streaming via telematics.

These intelligent, digital controls mean a digitally-enabled machine is highly controllable and extremely efficient. The net result is:

• A more intelligent approach
• Smoother, faster control means more work done per day
• Improved engine-to-work efficiency means increased maximum power, with the same size engine. Or the opportunity to downsize engines, without any loss of power or control
• Intelligent digital controls mean individual cylinders are only called into action when required, reducing losses system-wide
• And leading to longer work-cycles or smaller batteries for next-generation electric machine

We are now offering Digital Displacement® hydraulics as single and dual pumps with multiple outlets, configured to meet every customer need.

At Danfoss Digital Displacement we aim to make the complex, simple, to reimagine your machine to be optimized and differentiated unlike any on the market. Owned by Danfoss and developed in Scotland over the last 25 years, digital hydraulic technology delivers productivity, response and efficiency that cannot be replicated elsewhere in the market.

Digital Displacement® for injection moulding

The need for switching dynamically between high flow/low pressure to High Pressure/low flow from one pump without the need for external valving and throttling loses will reap benefits in duty cycle and reduction in energy consumption.

Digital Displacement® for water jet machines

The response times dictated by this application in switching the cylinders between the stroke cycle has seen a huge improvement in spray control, this gives a more precise and smoother cutting edge.

Going for the root cause of our greatness

True digital control allows the Digital Displacement pump to operate with stability over a very wide pressure operating range giving the user the ability to finely control pressure at the cutting head for materials of widely varying hardness and thickness.

Digital Displacement® for hydraulic power units

With pressurized standby losses reduced by 90%, Digital Displacement pumps reduce your total demand for energy and cooling while prolonging the service life of your oil. Reduced losses into the oil can allow for a smaller hydraulic reservoir and reduced total oil volume.

Digital Displacement® center of excellence

Each Danfoss Digital Displacement pump will be assembled at our new global Digital Displacement manufacturing and R&D facility near Edinburgh, Scotland.

Here we have developed a ground-breaking, dynamic manufacturing facility which brings a new approach to precision assembly and will ensure quality at every stage.

The fully flexible facility has been custom designed from the ground up to assemble a new generation of Digital Displacement pumps for off-highway and industrial customers.

Production has already begun, with the first customer pumps rolling off the line in August.

Read our full case study here