This post will be more fun if y'all guess what The Thing is. It really isn't hard, I'll bet even the non-techies here can figure it out. The backstory is that a few seconds after I saw pictures of this my finger jammed down on the "buy" button almost like a mindless reflex, just something I knew I had to have, just like one of those things I've always wanted, but in truth I never had any idea such a thing existed. I usually take a lot longer to decide on significant acquisitions. The good news is I've now got half of my real Xmas shopping done, I always buy my own present, wife and I exchange only small stupid things on Xmas. Bad news is that my Xmas money's gone! I didn't get dimensions on it yet but I think about 6 x 3 x 5 feet. I do know it weighs just under 1000 lbs.. Should arrive within 2 wks. I'm sweating bullets over the possibility that delicate parts will be damaged in shipment, but not much I can do about it.
Sure would be fun to play with. It's a double function... hydraulics on front, pneumatics on back? Is that a PLC controller? (I loved PLC logic.)
Good, but I'm sure you know more about it than I do so far, my knowledge of hydraulic stuff is limited. It is supposed to be a hydraulic trainer with documentation inside the cabinet. PLC = Pretty Little Computer? Something else where I'm a dummy. So I'll use it to train myself and my helpers in hydraulic mechanisms since we have many machines that include hydraulic systems. Hope it works, I'm guessing it is a decade or two old but it looks unused.
Is it still guessing when it says hydraulic trainer on the thing itself? But who or what does it train for what kind of hydraulic system?
Good questions, second one I'll probably be able to answer accurately if I can find advertising for it, maybe there's some with the papers inside. Might have been for Parker factory training for their own folks and/or customers since they are a big maker of hydraulic devices (just "Parker" seems to have been a few mergers back since the name has changed.). I've contacted their training department to learn what I can, knowing that it may take time to respond to a non-paying voicemail inquiry.
It is clear to me that underneath are the motor, pump, and sump together known as an "hydraulic unit" which supplies pressurized fluid to the stuff on top. Black cylinder on top is probably an accumulator (think of a fluid spring.). Each device on the white board has a schematic symbol by it to identify its function, and that'll be very useful here. Seems like most of those on front of board are various types of directional control valves shown in chap. 4:10 here: http://www.hydraulicspneumatics.com/other-technologies/chapter-4-iso-symbols
I instinctively started to look him up but in a few seconds realized I'd been deceived by a jokester! And hey, that's Doktor Frank N. Stein to you! Anyway, the Parker training folks have 6 different manuals for various aspects of the Thing, for sale should I be missing any, will inventory it on arrival. Mine looks like it has all the bells and whistles you can get on one, even tho it is "last years' model." https://www.parker.com/literature/Training/Hydraulics Training/Bul0203HydraulicTrainingEquipment.pdf
