Hydraulic Jack – An Important Instrument in The Construction Industry & Workshops

Have you ever gone to a service station? The Cars are usually loaded onto a platform which rises gradually. This platform uses the same tool called The Hydraulic Jack. This device or a mechanical instrument is used to raise heavy objects manually with the need of human effort. The most common ones are the mechanical jacks. However there are few others like floor jacks and bottle jacks which are often used. All of them employ the same basic phenomenon but they differ in their shape.

A hydraulic jack uses a fluid, which is incompressible and is constrained into a cylinder by a pump piston. Oil is utilised, as the plunger backs away, it guides oil out of the source by a suction valve in side the pump chamber. When the piston displaces ahead, it drives the oil through a discharge check valve into the piston chamber. The suction valve ball is within the chamber and cleals with each pass of the plunger. The dispatch valve ball is out of the chamber and opens when the oil is forced into the cylinder. Now the suction ball inside the chamber is closed and pressure of the oil increases in the piston chamber.

The Jacks are usually used to lift heavy objects. They can use different methods like the car jack uses the lead screw to lift the heavy car. The Acme threads withstand heavy weighed cars. Likewise, the Hydraulic jack is also used to lift heavy objects by a manual force. Pascal’s principle is used here, which states that the pressure in a closed container is same at all points. A force divided by area using this equation defines the pressure. Hydraulic jack is built with two cylinders, one big while the other small. One application of a small force can lift heavier objects placed on the bigger cylinder; both these cylinders are filled with oil.

Hydraulic jacks are distributed to different types with a difference in construction. There are Floor Jacks in which the horizontal piston presses on the short end of a bell crank, with the long arm providing the vertical motion to an elevating pad, kept level with a horizontal linkage. Floor jacks usually include castors, which allow compensation for the curve adopted by the lifting pad. This mechanism allows for a low profile when collapsed, for comfortable operation beneath the vehicle, while providing extensive elongation.

In Bottle Jacks the piston is upright and directly holds a bearing pad that holds the object being hoisted. With a single action piston the elevation is slightly less than twice the folded height of the jack, making it appropriate only for cars with a comparatively high clearance. For elevating structures like houses the hydraulic interconnection of multiple perpendicular jacks through valves enables the level distribution of forces while sanctioning close control of the lift.

The Hydraulic jack is quite an important instrument in construction industry and workshops because it decreases a lot of work for the mechanics and laborers, and they have vast applications in these fields.