Leakage is the bane of any engineer working with a fluid power system. It can easily be avoided by proper system design and setup, as well as the specifying of the proper parts. But in the real world, mistakes happen, maintenance and installation may be shoddy, and a thousand other things can go wrong. This can leave a maintenance supervisor with leakage issues on a valuable piece of machinery. Finding any leaks is a critical job, but it can be a difficult job without shutting down a whole process.

So it was refreshing to see the Test Points program recently promoted by Tompkins Industries. With Test Points, a user can pressure test without tools and check for leaks in multiple spots, all without shutting down the system. Typical problems detected, according to Tompkins, include leaking seals in pumps and cylinders, line blockages, faulty valves, clogged filters and worn out pumps and motors. And as they note, effective monitoring can prevent unexpected downtime.

Users can build their own custom test point kit, and thus include only the components they need for their operations—a great option for maintenance, monitoring and emergency repair. The company has an online kit builder at http://tompkinsind.com/catalog/test_point_kit.asp.