PONAR - Dual Use Hydraulics

Sponsored content by PONAR WADOWICE S.A.

The company has been in business for almost 60 years now, and its solutions are recognised and trusted by customers from all over the world. Due to the situation beyond our eastern border, and the threats emanating from there, there has been an increased demand for modern military equipment manufactured in Poland, which Ponar decided to satisfy by becoming a key manufacturer regarding the components of military platforms. In recent years, Ponar has been gradually expanding its activities in the defence sector and today production for the military and defence customers is a substantial and increasingly more important part of the company’s offer.

Military Applications Used in Civil Undertakings

Thanks to previous experience gained in projects pursued for the civilian sector customer base over the years, working with the defence industry, Ponar has introduced innovative solutions to improve the efficiency and safety of defence equipment. The company provides highly advanced hydraulic solutions used in a variety of military equipment, armoured vehicles, artillery systems, radar equipment and other defence applications.

Some of those solutions are proprietary and made by Ponar’s engineers. The engineers constitute one-fifth of the facility’s personnel.

Nowadays, the two production streams - for civilian and military companies - are intertwined, often intersecting, as discussed below. Ponar hardware has been working in the mining industry for years, including in mine hoisting machinery, helping to test the operation of pumps and aircraft engines. The Ponar trademark can also be found on machinery working on ships and oil rigs. Ponar’s long-standing links with various sectors of industry (more broadly the economy) underline such important features of the business, such as the versatility of its production and its very high technological sophistication. The fact that state-of-the-art machinery is at work within the Ponar’s production halls makes it possible to carry out complex projects, both in the civilian and military areas.

Hydraulic Container Lifting and Levelling Systems

The ideas pursued for the civilian sector are often also usable for defence, which has been often confirmed at Ponar. The company has developed and implemented a system for lifting and levelling containers, consisting of a control unit, support actuators, and rotation actuators. Prepared for civilian customers, the developed solution is currently being used, among others, in command containers, and artillery containers but also in medical containers for, for example, tests and diagnostics.

The unit has a hydraulic system to power and control the operation of the cylinders responsible for raising and lowering the container. It uses a control system that allows, among other things, automatic operation and self-levelling during unloading, individual controls for each of the main cylinders in manual mode and control of the system from a panel or via a control box. An important component of the overall system is the support pivot actuators set, which allow the support actuator to rotate by 90°.

The hydraulic components used in this system allow for operation in extreme temperatures, increased humidity, salt spray, precipitation and atmospheric deposits, as well as high winds. Vehicles equipped with these components are designed to operate under battlefield conditions. Thanks to their high standards of quality and reliability, Ponar’s products meet stringent technical and operational requirements, making them suitable for use in just such difficult, sometimes even extreme, wartime conditions.

Hydropneumatic Suspension Units

Another example that works well in both defence and civilian industries is the hydropneumatic suspension system. It provides a flexible connection between the vehicle’s body and its running gear, improving the vehicle’s damping and traction characteristics, especially when driving on dirt, bumpy roads and off-road. Thanks to these features, the hydropneumatic suspension is widely used in civilian designs, such as in tracked amphibious vehicles.

However, hydropneumatic suspension components have significant and much wider applications in military equipment, primarily in combat tracked vehicles. In these, they are an extremely important part of the vehicle, absorbing the considerable forces generated by the firing of cannons, and medium and large calibre guns. It is worth recalling that this occurs when self-propelled howitzers, for instance, are on the move in difficult, often extreme terrain conditions. Thanks to the appropriate use of the aforementioned solutions, these forces are effectively dampened, reducing the stresses transmitted to the vehicle structure. In this way, the suspension units as such improve the accuracy and effectiveness of firefighting under combat conditions.

The hydraulic suspensions manufactured at PONAR Wadowice have been integrated, for example, on the Krab self-propelled howitzer, command and staff vehicles or the new Borsuk amphibious infantry fighting vehicle. Hydropneumatic suspension units developed by Ponar for the Borsuk IFV have received the prestigious “Orły Bezpieczeństwa” award.

Using the potential of Polish companies such as Ponar Wadowice S.A., which employs highly qualified engineering and technical staff, our country can aim to become independent of foreign supplies. Relying on innovative solutions proposed by Polish engineers and high-quality production in domestic industrial plants can bring significant strategic and economic benefits.

Sponsored content by PONAR WADOWICE S.A.