Radial piston pump assemblies and use thereof in hydraulic circuits

A system and method for machinery performing work with hydraulic actuators (226). Radial hydraulic pumps (210a-210f) are aligned end-to-end along a common driveshaft axis (218) to form a multi-pump assembly (220) having a plurality of piston/cylinder units (222a- 222c) extending in a radial direction (R). Two or more piston/cylinder units (222a- 222c) are associated with one another to form multiple piston/cylinder groups (5a-5f, 83b-83e). A plurality of control valves (6a-6f, 86b-86e) combines individual output flows from the two or more associated piston/cylinder units into respective common output flows for each respective piston/cylinder group. A plurality of flow control devices (T1-T4, 186a-186f) varies the common output flow from each respective piston/cylinder group by throttling inlet flow to the two or more associated piston/cylinder units in each respective piston/cylinder group. Each respective common output flow is directed from each respective piston/cylinder group to a hydraulic actuator (A1, 88b-88e) on the heavy machinery to control its direction of movement.