HYDRAULICS Ageing hydraulic infrastructure is shaping the way UK engineers think about hose assembly reliability. Much of the country’s construction plant, manufacturing equipment and transport machinery is now operating beyond its original design life. These machines are still productive and often indispensable, yet they place unusual demands on the hydraulic connections that keep them working. Swaged fittings have become central to keeping this older fleet safe and dependable. The issue is rarely a single dramatic failure. More often it is the gradual accumulation of vibration, thermal cycling and inconsistent maintenance that weakens threaded or clamp-type terminations. Older equipment tends to run with worn pumps, pressure fluctuations and hard-to-predict duty cycles. Minor weeps at the coupling may go unnoticed until contamination reaches a sensitive area or a hose begins to blister. Engineers report that many callouts involve small defects that originated at a connection that was once considered adequate but is no longer suited to the harsher operating environment of an ageing machine. Swaging provides a controlled and uniform compression that counteracts these variables. Its value lies in its repeatability. A swaged termination behaves predictably during pressure spikes and does not loosen under cyclical loading in the way some mechanically retained fittings can. This stability reduces the risk of sudden bursts, but it also limits the slow degradation that drives a large share of unplanned maintenance. Older assets often cannot tolerate extended downtime while assemblies are rebuilt. A correctly swaged hose tends to 24 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS November/December 2025 www.hpmag.co.uk Swaging for reliability Ageing machinery, skills shortages and tighter scrutiny are forcing UK engineers to rethink hose assembly reliability, with swaging providing the consistency and integrity needed to keep legacy hydraulic systems productive. H&P reports. perform consistently for its full service life, helping engineers plan interventions rather than react to them. Legacy systems Service technicians working on legacy systems have also highlighted the advantage of traceable, specificationdriven assembly. As documentation on older equipment becomes incomplete or inaccessible, the certainty offered by a calibrated swaging machine and a properly matched hose and ferrule becomes more valuable. It allows a leaking line on a twenty-year-old excavator or press to be replaced with confidence, even when the original fitting type is obsolete or unknown. This structured approach aligns better with today’s audit expectations and helps safeguard operators working in close proximity to high-pressure lines. A further consideration is the growing scarcity of specialists who were familiar with older coupling styles. The UK skills shortage means workshops and mobile repair services cannot rely on deep individual experience to judge whether a connection is good enough. Swaging equipment reduces the dependence on tacit knowledge and produces consistent results across different technicians and locations. For companies stretching the life of ageing machinery, this consistency can be the difference between a stable production schedule and repeated stoppages. Hydraulic systems that remain in service beyond their intended lifespan require a level of connection integrity that compensates for uncertain duty cycles and less predictable operating conditions. Swaged terminations offer a robust and repeatable solution that suits the realities of maintaining the UK’s ageing machinery. They reduce avoidable downtime, permit clearer quality control and help engineers deliver dependable performance from equipment that still has work to do.
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