SAE, the acronym for the Society of Automotive Engineers. Founded in 1905, the Society of Automotive Engineers – now called SAE International – is a non-profit group focused on advancing mobility tech to benefit society. More than 133,000 engineers and related experts make up its membership and develop technical info on all types of vehicles. One of the things the SAE does is develop voluntary global standards for parts used in these vehicles. This includes hydraulic fittings and the hoses, pipes, and tubes to which they attach.
More than 10,000 members serve on the technical committees of SAE developing the standards used worldwide in a variety of industries. These standards dictate fitting construction, pressure ratings, and dimensions, among other things. Standards make changing out hydraulic fittings easier and cheaper by maintaining size consistency. They also ensure those fittings will work for the range of pressures they are designed for in hydraulic systems.
SAE Hydraulic fittings
Connectors and ports have many uses in hydraulics, so you want to make sure you are using the right ones when you do repairs or maintenance. A tag such as SAE J512 is a classifier for the main thread traits: pitch, diameter, angle, and form. You’ll need callipers and a thread-pitch gauge to measure if you aren’t sure about a part.
You’ll find two main sets of standards for fittings – SAE J514 for tubes and SAE J516 for hoses. Here are a few of the most common SAE fittings you might run into doing repairs.
SAE J514
This standard covers 37-degree flared and flareless types of O-ring plugs and hydraulic tube fittings, along with pipe fittings and adapter unions for use in conjunction. These are meant for general use in systems on commercial products and industrial machines.
The standards make for fittings capable of giving you a leakproof, full-flow connection under working pressure.
SAE J516
This standard covers the most common hose fittings used with hydraulic hoses in systems on mobile and stationary equipment.
The types of hose fittings covered here include O-ring face seal, flareless 24-degree cone, four-bolt flange, straight thread O-ring, 37-degree flare, and dry seal pipe thread.
QC Hydraulics are supplying all SAE standard fittings, please contact our sales team to learn more about our products.