Ryco upgrades include new fittings technology

HOUSTON—Ryco Hydraulics Inc. has been busy, introducing a new fittings technology, pushing its new range of hydraulic hoses and introducing a new emergency service program for use by its distributors.

Its Ryco JSEAL-brand fitting is available in the marketplace as an alternative to traditional Joint Industrial Conference fittings that have been standardized in the hose and fittings industry for decades.

The JSEAL technology developed by Ryco has eight faces in the shape of an octagon, instead of the previous five faces, according to Zeke Metzler, vice president of sales and marketing at Ryco Hydraulics, the North American arm of Australia's Ryco Hydraulics Pty. Ltd.

Ryco claims the new fitting offers excellent vibration resistance; resists excessive torque and stretching; is fully interchangeable with hoses using JIC fittings; and offers easier installation and connection.

“JSEAL has a different seat on it,” Metzler said. “It seals at a different point on the sealing face, meaning it's leak free. It's much harder to crack and damage the fitting because when you over-torque JIC fittings, the seat cracks where the nut is interlocked. Because of the design, this is much more resistant to cracking.”

He said the development was in response to original equipment manufacturing customers who were looking for an upgrade from JIC fittings that typically work their way loose when first put in use, meaning operators have to go back and re-tighten everything. “OEMs were asking if there were a better fitting to eliminate some of that process and prevent the leaking,” Metzler said.

The JSEAL products have passed field trials and are being approved at OEMs now, he added, and are being introduced to Ryco's network globally. The hose and fittings maker will support the launch with ad campaigns, literature, a YouTube video and personal contact from the sales team to the distribution network.

Ryco is putting all its support behind the JSEAL line as it will discontinue traditional JIC fittings to take advantage of economies of scale, Metzler said. “This will become our product,” he said. “There's a lot of technology here, but we're not going to charge a premium for it. We won't run a dual line. This will become our standard JIC fitting in our product line.”

Gaining market approval will be an educational process, he said. “We're innovating and developing higher performing products that give you longer life in your application.”

Ryco has seen strong growth for its new range of isobaric hydraulic hose lines that offer constant pressure across a range of diameters. Metzler said that with traditional hydraulic hoses, the smaller the diameter of the hose, the larger the pressure.

But with isobaric hose, the pressure is constant within the product family. Ryco offers hydraulic lines that offer 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 and 6,000 PSI in both braided and spiral hose constructions.

Metzler said the products offer much higher flexibility and a longer cycle life. Some hoses in Ryco's lines offer 1 million cycles, and the technology is improving in some hose families to give 2 million cycles, compared with what he claimed is 200,000 to 250,000 cycles for traditional hydraulic hose.

The lines are aimed at applications in heavy equipment, construction machinery and agricultural equipment.

Acceptance has been excellent, with the Ryco spiral line gravitating fully to isobaric and the braided hose now having about half of its application in isobaric products, he said.

The firm also is offering its Ryco 24.7 mobile van service to its North American distributors to provide on-site service for emergency breakdowns. It has offered the service successfully for 15 years in Australia and believes it now has enough business in North America to bring Ryco 24.7 here.

Thus far Ryco has had distributors in Bossier City, La., and Hammond and Michigan City, Ind., signed up to start offering the service.

“We've developed the program, and we introduce it to accounts that want to provide this type of service in their local markets,” Metzler said. “We assist in the branding and structure and how to operate and be successful with it.”

Some of its distributors asked Ryco to create a brand in their marketplaces to help them differentiate from the competition, something that eventually could be leveraged nationally. For Ryco 24.7, the distributors have a very specific geography to cover and have to be able to be on-site to do the repair in one hour, or else the customer probably can get it done quicker some other way.

“The No. 1 problem is eliminating downtime,” Metzler said. “If they can call up and have someone on-site in less than an hour and get the customer's project up and running, that's a huge savings as opposed to having to send a guy somewhere to get a hose made and drive back.”

The main benefit for Ryco is a stronger distributor. “It makes them better,” he said.

“It gives them an additional channel to market and an additional way to service their market and take care of their customers. They're not just selling them hose and fittings. We're bringing them something that will add value to their business.”