John Foster

About John Foster

Passionate about boats, cars, art, architecture and of course, hydraulics. After 40 years as Director of Sarum Hydraulics, every day still brings new challenges and inspiring engineering in the bigger world. If you want to talk hydraulics, engineering or even boats, reach out to me on LinkedIn at https://uk.linkedin.com/in/johngfoster or contact me direct at john@sarum-hydraulics.co.uk

Twelve things I have learnt about seals

By |2018-03-02T16:13:50+00:00July 29th, 2014|Blog|

We certainly know our seals here, we've been designing pumps for 30 years! Here's some of what we've learnt: Think carefully about designing in a seal unique to one manufacturer. It is a right headache if they are suddenly on a 16 week lead. There are Chinese seals and Chinese seals. Bearing in mind that [...]

Our top five tricky plating and finishing processes

By |2018-03-02T16:14:46+00:00July 17th, 2014|Blog|

Do you need to anodise, plate or paint your vulnerable metal components? Sarum Hydraulics shares its expertise, with 5 finishing processes you need to be extra careful with: 1. Any component or process where an air bubble inevitably lodges up inside. You obviously can't process it properly. Total disaster! 2. Anodising. When you design it, [...]

Can I use water from the tap as my eco friendly hydraulic fluid?

By |2018-03-07T18:09:27+00:00July 9th, 2014|Blog, Hydraulic Fluids, White Paper|

Wouldn't it be great to top up your hydraulic system from the tap? Some industries do this. They pay the extra cost of the system components from Danfoss or Tony Markham at the Water Hydraulic Company and use water. Some industries like mining or steel-making find water essential for safety reasons. Pressure testers like it [...]

Designing more and more in aluminium – could the price suddenly double and leave all of us with problems?

By |2018-03-02T16:14:56+00:00July 3rd, 2014|Blog|

There are good reasons for using aluminium. Mass is the big driver. The list of pluses goes on and on and you could select the benefits of extrusion, ability to produce deep and optimally profiled sections, advances in die casting, advances in metal forming, CNC machining advances, laser and water jet cutting and solid modelling [...]

Winning the corrosion battle on wind farms

By |2018-03-02T16:20:56+00:00June 24th, 2014|Blog|

“Make it all in 316 stainless”. Unfortunately that is not practical in the majority of marine installations. If you are using commercial hydraulic components and are not immersed or in a splash zone, you will use a strategy of protecting parts. Anything static can have various finishes applied, with incredible results. Where you start to [...]

Seawork Exhibition Southampton- a dose of reality in the Yachting dream.

By |2018-03-02T16:29:36+00:00June 18th, 2014|Blog|

Sometimes I think that the whole boating industry is peddling a big dream. Those sun filled days on perfect seas. I have had lots of wonderful days. Just the weather and that pesky salt water that get in the way on some of the others! The “Seawork” exhibition in Southampton (this year 10/11/12 June) always [...]

Ten things I have learnt about “Loctite” methacrylate structural, sealing and thread locking adhesives.

By |2018-03-02T16:15:06+00:00June 12th, 2014|Blog|

At Sarum hydraulics, we have been using methacrylate structural adhesives for 30 years both for structural, thread locking and sealing applications with great success. Yes, we also use epoxies, UV curing adhesives and silicones, but methacrylates like Loctite 638 or thread lock 243 are a core process. Although there are other firms in the market [...]

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