Pedro Roquet has a rather large and well-equipped development department for a company of it's size. The department has over 40 specific test rigs for development testing, all of which are designed and built in-house.

The type of testing conducted varies substantially - depending on the specific product involved - for instance, the following three types of life test are conducted on development pumps:

1. Resistance test - 1000 hours cycling 0 bar (10 secs) / 5% over catalogue rated peak pressure (20 secs)
2. Life test - 1000 hours at 5% over catalogue continuous rated pressure
3. Fatigue test - 1 million cycles at 1 Hz 0 bar / 5% over catalogue rated peak pressure

The above tests are designed to stress the various pump components to the absolute limit - to help this, and to re-create a typical arduous application, these tests are conducted using hot (90 deg. C) and very dirty oil. This method gives us the opportunity to compare results with different design criteria fairly rapidly.

Photographs of some of the development test rigs and other facilities currently in use
	This is a partial view of the development department where products under development are assembled and dismantled for analysis.
	Development testing of lift cylinders for a new fork-lift truck. These two rigs are actual fork-lift masts lifting loads of 2 tonnes. To save energy the two masts are synchronized so that they alternately re-generate via a hydraulic motor attached to the rear of the pump drive motor.
	Fatigue testing a mobile directional control valve. 350 bar, 1 Hz - 1 million cycles (spool actioned pneumatically)
	Fatigue testing tilt cylinders for a fork-lift manufacturer. Bending moment introduced by the upper (green) cylinders to stress rod-end and rod seals/scrapers
	Life testing a cast-iron gear pump under development. 1000 hours continuous at continuous operating pressure plus 15%. Hot and dirty oil. Efficiency checked every 24 hours.
	Fatigue testing a gear pump 1 million cycles at 1Hz 0-280 bar
	Fatigue testing cylinders.
	Life testing new pump compensating seals with biological oil.
	Resistance testing a gear pump. 1000 hours, cycling 20 seconds at 300 bar, 10 seconds unloaded. Hot and dirty oil.
	A cast-iron pump being fatigue tested - 1 million cycles at 1Hz 0-320 bar
	ISO Contamination sensitivity test rig for accelerated contamination resistance testing of gear pumps
	Mini-excavator cylinders being life tested - 6 at a time.
	Fork-lift steering cylinders being fatigue-tested (1 million cycles under quite arduous conditions)
	Gate operators being tested with side-loads
	Two gate operators being operated back-to back. One with cooling fins to dissipate heat.
	A new electro-hydraulic door-operator being life-tested
	10 new motor/pump sets from gate operators being life-tested simultaneously
	A pump undergoing a noise test in our anechoic chamber. We typically test at 6 different pressures and 6 different speeds and the chamber is equipped with sophisticated noise level measurement devices as well as a digital spectrum analyser and vibration sensors.
	A gate operator in the anechoic chamber
	Partial view of the control section for the anechoic chamber with variable speed drive, noise spectrum analyser, oscilloscope and dB(A) meter