that most were taking the traditional route of using time-based re-placement programs that meant literally millions of feet of hosewere being removed from service prematurely.

The engineering staff at the Eaton Hydraulics Group’s technolo-gy center in Maumee, Ohio, worked with Purdue researchers onthe project. Both are members of the Center for Compact and Effi-cient Fluid Power, an organization focused on improving hydraulictechnology and education.

The group of researchers monitored hose properties and startedto notice some consistencies in changes that occurred right beforehose failure, according to Mike Beining, an Eaton project engineer-ing manager and team leader in the new product developmentgroup.

“As we see those changes in those properties, that’s when we’reable to provide the notification that the hose failure is imminent,”he said.

Purdue took out the initial patent on the technology, which iden-tifies changes in certain electrical properties of a hose that reliablyindicate it is approaching failure. Eaton, which also has patentsassociated with LifeSense, has exclusive license for the Purduepatent. The company said use of this technology won’t just signifi-cantly reduce the incidence of catastrophic hose failures, but willbring down overall operating costs by eliminating the replacementof hoses with substantial remaining operating life.

The LifeSense system includes a new hose with at least one con-ductor in its construction, a special end fitting that serves as botha hydraulic and electrical connector, and a diagnostic unit contain-ing the monitoring electronics and operator notification interface.The initial product has the diagnostic unit hardwired to the fit-tings on the LifeSense hose assembly, and one diagnostic unit canmonitor inputs from up to 11 hose assemblies.

While it theoretically can be used on a variety of hose types,Eaton will start by offering it only in hydraulic hose assemblieswith straight JIC swivel fittings in three common sizes.

Beining said the development work has been going on for aboutthree years. One of the difficult challenges to overcome was that

Reprinted with permission of Rubber & Plastics News. Copyright Crain Communications Inc. 2011

August 8, 2011

By Bruce MeyerRubber & Plastics News Staff

The ability to predict hose failure has been a decades-long goalin the hydraulic and industrial hose arena.

Because of the rugged applications that hose products often aresubjected to, failure can mean anything from expensive downtimein applications such as mining or oil and gas, to potentially cata-strophic health, safety or environmental events when a high-pres-sure hydraulic hose bursts.

Now two of the top hose companies in the industry—Gates Corp.and Eaton Corp.—are simultaneously marketing separate tech-nologies aimed at addressing the problem, albeit taking slightlydifferent paths.

Eaton is touting its LifeSense hose, a patented hydraulic hosecondition monitoring system developed in conjunction with PurdueUniversity and the Purdue Research Foundation’s Office of Tech-nology Commercialization. Eaton said the beauty of its system is itdoesn’t rely on mathematical calculations to predict when a hose isgoing to fail, that it actually can detect when a hose is nearing theend of its useful life.

Doug Jahnke, Eaton product marketing manager, has been inthe hydraulics hose industry for more than 30 years, and the issuehas been a topic of discussion the entire time. “What LifeSensedoes is it gives us a method of actually measuring and monitoringthings that are going on inside a hose that we determined in labo-ratory testing virtually always lead to ultimate failure of a hose,”he said.

Gates at the same time commercialized what it calls its SentryServices program. The two-tier service includes both Gates’ SentryID system to track specific hose assemblies and its Sentry IQ tech-nology, which can be used to monitor the spikes in temperatureand pressure in hose assemblies and calculate remaining hose lifeand identify hoses for replacement before failure occurs. Gates saidthe systems can be used for any type of hose.

“Simply from having decades worth of test data, we understandwhat the impacts of those spikes have on hose life,” said Barry

Shockley, Gates director of hy-draulics coupling capability. Headded that having 30 to 40years of test data available wasinvaluable in putting togetherthe algorithms utilized in Sen-try Services.

Eaton’s LifeSenseThe genesis for Eaton’s Life-

Sense product development waslaboratory tests that indicatedthat most replaced hoses stillretained 50 percent or more oftheir useful life. Because endusers feared hose failures and

the consequences, Eaton found

Staff at Eaton’s Maumee, Ohio, Technical Center. From leftare: Product Marketing Manager Doug Jahnke, Project Engi-neering Manager Mike Beining, and project engineers MikeWells and Scott Smith.

OOnnee ggooaall,, ttwwoo ccoommppaanniieessGates and Eaton both take swing at technology aimed at predicting hose failure

Barry Shockley, Gates director ofhydraulics coupling capability.

the hose now has to serve two functions: both as a hose and as partof an electronic circuit.

“That’s not an easy task,” he said. “It did take going throughquite a few design iterations because we were doing something no-body had done before.”

Gates’ Sentry ServicesShockley said that Sentry Services is a step outside the box for

Gates. After a century of being a company that concentrated on de-veloping new products, this technology truly is a service offering,he said.

Sentry ID is a radio frequency tagging system that allows fieldservice personnel, mobile equipment operators and fleet managersto identify and track specific hose assemblies. Shockley said it canbe used in less-critical applications and facilitates quick location,repair and replacement.

Sentry IQ initially is being aimed at the mining and oil and gasindustries, and continuously monitors the pressure and tempera-ture information to estimate how much of the hose life has beenused. It uses a proprietary set of algorithms and can warn of out-of-specification service conditions. It doesn’t, the company cau-tioned, warn of damage caused by abrasion, abuse, climate or oth-er external conditions, which must be determined by onsite inspec-tions.

“This is looking at the hose from the inside-out,” Shockley said.“Traditionally you’ve only been able to look at hoses from the out-side-in, and see if you’ve had anything wearing on a hose to try togain any indication on how much hose life there might be.”

Combining the information from Sentry IQ with manual hoseinspections, he added, “gives you a very good picture of the re-maining hose life.”

Shockley discounts the thought that hoses being replaced prema-turely is a major issue. A hydraulic hose assembly may run just afew hundred dollars, so most of the customers Gates is targetingwith Sentry IQ are more concerned with what happens if a hosefails.

“That’s been the driver for this,” he said. “Sitting in the cus-tomer’s chair and recognizing when they’re looking at their hose,they’re concerned about failure. It’s not about getting a $300 hoseto last longer. It’s what does that failure cost them in terms of pro-duction, in terms of personal injury, and in terms of environmen-tal impact and the cost to clean that up. And when you start tosum these up, that far exceeds any kind of value you’d receive formaking a hose last longer.”

Customer reactionOf course, putting an advanced technology on the market and

getting customers to see enough value in it to make a purchase arecompletely different propositions.

Shockley said that Gates has found itself at times talking to the“wrong types of customers.” That is, those customers who aren’t

concerned about hose fail-ure and find the best solu-tion for them is just tokeep an extra hose on theshelf.

So Denver-based Gatesidentified the mining andoil and gas sectors as thetwo best sectors to focusits initial marketing ef-forts. “When you have aproduction well that goesdown for an hour or two,or a day, the amount ofrevenue associated withthat is significant,”Shockley said. “It doesn’t

matter whether it’s a hun-dred-dollar hose, a thousanddollar hose, or a ten-thou-sand-dollar hose, that’s sort ofminiscule in the scheme of allthe production revenue that’slost, not to mention any typeof personal injury or environ-mental issues involved.”

And in mining, there arecases where a longwall or con-tinuous mine may have onlyone particular piece of equip-ment per mine where failurecan bring the entire operationto a standstill.

Gates also said being ableto offer the Sentry ID servicesis an advantage because notevery application brings criti-cal consequences when a fail-ure occurs. “There’s a lot ofdetail that we can do withinthat database to properlytrack and manage hose assetsso you stay on top of whichhoses need inspection,” he said.

Customer response has been strong so far, according to theGates official. Besides the two sectors it’s targeting, the firm hasreceived some interest in mobile hydraulics and other areas, buthe said it’s difficult to make sure enough value exists for the cus-tomers in those areas.

“You need to recognize those types of customers who are willingto pay for a premium service as opposed to those who would like itbut aren’t willing to pay for it,” Shockley said.

Gates has worked with development partners in both miningand oil and gas to prove that value in those markets exists. Todate, he said actual sales—for both Sentry ID and IQ—have beenfocused in oil and gas. “They’re seeing and recognizing the value,and that’s why I think oil and gas is leading the way for us at themoment.”

Jahnke said one of the biggest challenges for Eaton has been de-termining how the customer wants to receive the alert that a hoseneeds to be replaced. While the company’s LifeSense technologyuses a wired connection, he said most customers say they’d like awireless option that would send out the message.

Eaton is working on a wireless version, but that could be nine to15 months away, he said. “What we’d like to do is get potentialcustomers started with wired so they can gain an appreciation anda confidence level in the hose technology. The conversion of wiredto wireless should be seamless.”

Jahnke said there has been tremendous interest from potentialcustomers throughout the project and the firm is starting to re-ceive orders for trial kits. None have balked at the potential pricepremium such a technology brings, although he said it isn’t thatmuch more than what they currently pay for hydraulic hoses.

“It provides such a huge value that it’s ultimately going to saveusers from all of the costs associated with hydraulic hose failurefar more than what they are currently paying,” Jahnke said.

Both Eaton and Gates officials have opinions on why they be-lieve their way is better.

Shockley said the key advantage for Gates is that Sentry Ser-vices can be applied to virtually any hose and coupling assembliesmade to Gates’ standards. “I think that’s been appealing to thecustomers we’ve talked to,” he said, noting that both coming out atthe same time is beneficial in bringing the issue of hose failure tothe forefront.

And Jahnke said LifeSense shines above because it is muchmore than an estimation process, and in the long run believes itwill prove more valuable to customers. “Nobody else in the indus-try has that capability, so we’re very excited about it,” he said.

Eaton’s LifeSense offering includes a hydraulic hose that ishardwired to a diagnostic unit that can monitor the properties ofup to 11 hose assemblies.

Gates Sentry Services’ technolo-gy offers two options: Sentry ID,shown here, that uses a radio fre-quency tagging system to trackhose assemblies worldwide, andSentry IQ, which monitors operat-ing conditions of hose assem-blies to help predict how muchhose life remains.