Patent 9488195 was granted and assigned to Hitachi on November, 2016 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Disclosed is a hydraulic system for a hydraulic excavator. The hydraulic system inputs rotary power from a rotary power producing means to a hydraulic pump to produce hydraulic power, and operates an actuator by the hydraulic power. A hydraulic oil drain line from the actuator is branched into a flow rate control line as a line connected to a spool of a flow rate control valve controllable by manipulation of a lever and a power regeneration line as a line connected to a variable displacement motor for converting hydraulic power of discharged hydraulic oil to reusable energy. A regeneration ratio control means is also arranged to control the variable displacement motor such that a flow rate of the power regeneration line satisfies a preset fixed ratio α relative to a flow rate occurred in the flow rate control line by the manipulation of the lever.