An introduction to Pedro Roquet, S.A. for the EU Gateway Business Mission to Japan
Basic company information Hydraulic products Gear pumps and motors, control valves, cylinders People 362 people Facilities 3 modern factories plus foundry (grey and ductile/sg cast-iron) Substantial development department (40+ fatigue/life test rigs) Well-equipped materials laboratory (includes corrosion resistance) Turnover $50 million (2012) - 80% export Main applications Construction, agricultural and other mobile machinery Some well-known customers:
History Founded by: Pedro Roquet Vilà 1889-1963 First tractor hitch - 1952 Valves plant 1959 Gear pump factory - 1979 Foundry - 1992 Cylinder factory 2000, 2003, 2004
Applications Construction Telescopic loaders Skid steer loaders Back-hoe loaders Wheeled loaders Mini-excavators Compactors Fork-Lifts Dumpers
Construction application example: Back-hoe attachment
Hydraulic products for SSL Cylinders Control valve Fan motor Gear pump? Selector valve? Single or double levelling valve
Applications Agriculture / Turf care Telescopic loaders Front loaders Front hitches Air seeders Back-hoes Turf care
Agricultural application example: Front loader LS with hydraulic pilot with reliefs Selector valve with joystick and cables with connecting block, accumulator switch, etc. Control valve Levelling valve Cylinder With joystick
Agricultural application example: Air seeder Fan motor Row marker valve BEFORE Hose AFTER Auxiliary pump (for PTO drive) Motor Check valve Motor with in-built 3-way flow control valve Tube Various fittings check valve and 3-way flow control
Agricultural application example: Turfcare Double gear pump (optional priority steering valve) Control valves Selector valves Reel motors
Applications Trucks Hook-loaders Skip loaders Cranes Three-way tippers Animal-feed delivery Rubbish Winter equipment
Truck application example: Hook-lift valves Pneumatically operated control valve Electro-pneumatically operated control valve Solenoid operated control valve
Factories Pedro Roquet, Tona head office and control valve production Tekor, Vic gear pump and motor production Dinacil, Centelles hydraulic cylinder production Fundiciones de Roda, Roda de Ter - foundry
TEKOR Gear pumps and motors 53 Employees - 6,000 square metres Aluminium and cast-iron gear pumps and motors 220,000 Pumps/motors 2012
TEKOR Gear pumps and motors All bodies, gears and bearing-blocks produced in-house Gears and shafts polished after grinding 100% pumps fully tested on automatic test rigs 100% OEM motors tested as motors 100% OEM pumps and motors flushed after testing to guarantee cleanliness Anechoic chamber for noise testing Extensive life-test R&D facilities Body machining Gear machining Gear grinding Gear polishing Gear machining Bearing machining, assembly & inspection Multiple automatic test rig
Gear pump and motor examples Proportional valve Priority LS steering valve Telescopic loader double pump SSL Fan motor Pump with steering priority flow control Deck motor for mower Back-hoe loader cast-iron double pump Gear-box cover +pump, valve, filter Fan motor with flow control and check valve
Head Office - Control Valves 184 Employees - 12,000 square metres Design, development all hydraulic products Manufacture control valves (slice & monoblock) 210,000 Control valves 2012
Control valve examples SSL control valve SSL levelling valve Diverter/selector valve Monoblock back-hoe valve Solenoid monoblock Sectional control valves
Dinacil Cylinder factory 90 Employees, 24 Robots - 7,000 square metres Large batches of hydraulic cylinders 25-120mm bore, up to 50-60mm rod/1500 centres 320,000 Cylinders 2012 (95% export) Fully automatic line machining, assembly, test & paint 1 cylinder/min.
Dinacil Cylinder factory Fully automated rod and tube machining Tubes honed AFTER welding ports 100% robot welding ports, tubes and rod ends Rod ends machined AFTER welding Highly automated assembly and 100% test Separate semi-automated rigs with pulsation, darkroom and UV testing for complicated cylinders (e.g. external feed-tubes, damping, etc.) 100% robot painting Flushing operation to guarantee cleanliness levels Fully automated cylinder assembly and test Semi-automated dark-room test rig Complicated cylinders on test Visual UV inspection in dark-room
Cylinder examples
Fundiciones de Roda - Castings 2 induction furnaces Air-impact molding Cable nodularization Aerial view Semi-automatic mold filling Long cooling time DISA Shot-blasting 35 Employees - 6,000 square metres Customers: Bosch-Rexroth, Danfoss, Parker 4500 Tons Grey Iron 2012 5000 Tons SG / Ductile / Nodular Iron 2012 Internal shot-blasting MAUS CNC Fettling
Fundiciones de Roda - Castings Mold-design cooling analysis Spectrum analyzer Grain structure microscope Hardness tester Tensile tester Resilience (Charpy) tester
R&D Over 40 dedicated R&D test rigs: Fatigue normally 1Hz Endurance longer cycles External force (to mimic inertia or other induced loads) Combination of the above with side-loads, rotary movements, etc. Actual application test (e.g. SSL, etc. in our test room) Anechoic chamber for noise testing Sufficient fatigue life data available for cylinder designs to permit design-for-life for some applications.
Design & Development Department Organization - Work force: - Design: 9 people (and 4 new vacancies) plus one manager - Some designers product-specific, others flexible depending on project work-loads - Development: 8 people (and 1 new vacancies) plus one manager - Total (after filling new vacancies): 24 people - Foundry: Fundiciones de Roda is our main supplier of cast parts, as it is part of the ROQUET Group it is very easy for us to develop prototype models or new castings. Our relation is very strong. - Design Programs: - Autodesk Invertor for 3D and AutoCAD for 2D drawings. - Tailor Made Project Management program. - Other programs: ANSYS, Working Model & Pro-E.
Design & Development Department The R&D department carry out several types of test. Functional test. Performance of the control valve, pump or cylinder Design: functionality, pressure vs flow, limits etc. Pressure Drop, Min. operating pressure, etc. Life test. Pulse pressure cycles are applied to the control valve, pump or cylinder until there is an external leakage or a failure. Then, life expectancy in several applications can be predicted through S-N curves. Other tests. According to special applications or customer specifications. Tests on complete or partial customer machines in-house or field testing Test Benches are designed and manufactured by our Technical Team, so flexibility is not an issue. A completely new test can typically be started within 2-3 weeks, at low cost.
Research and Development examples: Cylinders A 5 years R&D project lead with the European Union: Prohipp on Cylinder Design for Life The knowledge from this project gives higher value to the customer: All cylinder designs are checked to validate their resistance over time R&D tasks are carried out continuously Pic.1 Snapshot of the Prohipp project more detail in following pages Cylinders Tests
R&D examples of some of the 40+ test rigs used to test fatigue and endurance Piston retainer nut fatigue test Tube/port weld fatigue test Rod-end forging fatigue test Tube/port weld fatigue test Master/slave steering cylinder seal resistance test with sideloading (video available) Buckling test 8-cylinder seal endurance test rig External load test (mimics inertia loads and machine-induced loads)
R&D fatigue failures of end-cap welds A 99,9% reliability curve covers m-3s for all stresses
R&D examples cylinder design life prediction for all fatigue failure modes plus buckling
R&D. Metallurgical laboratory reports Laboratory reports. The metallurgical laboratory carry out reports analysing: Pic.1 and 2. Micrograps of the graphitic microstructure of a control valve body. - Raw material. - Manufactured monoblocs. - Contamination analysis. - Welding analysis. - R&D -Purchased components. Pict.1 Pic.3 and 4. Contamination analysis. Pict.2 Pic.5 and 6. Welding analysis. Pict.3 Pict.5 Control valve section, analysing the microstructure, hardness, stress and manufactured surface. Hardness of the sample: 201 212 HB. Estimated stress levels: 250 to 270 N/mm 2 Pict.4 Pict.6
R&D. Metallurgical laboratory reports Corrosion tests Tests are currently according ISO 9227 NSS (Neutral salt spray), which is equivalent to ASTM B 117-03 normally 500 hour test. Results are evaluated according ISO 10289-2001 (which substitutes ISO 4540). It is also possible to perform CASS test (Copper Accelerated Salt Spray) normally 64 hour test NSS test CASS test Both chambers are installed in the ROQUET laboratory. Results of standard Roquet Chromed Bar for Cylinders Valve test (testing paint resistance) Chromed bar after 64 hour CASS test
Thank you for your time Pedro Roquet, S.A. Antonio Figueras, 91, TONA 08551 (Barcelona) Spain Contacts: Xevi Hernandez, Area Manager NA xhernandez@roquet.es Victor Garcés, Area Manager Europe victor@roquet.es Richard Hall Hall, Commercial Director richard@roquet.es Phone: +34 93 812 4664 Web: www.pedro-roquet.com