If you work with any hydraulic equipment, it’s probable that you incur cylinder repair expenses often. Studies show that about 25% of hydraulic equipment failures are due to defective cylinders. Most cylinders fail due to the use of low-quality materials. Nonetheless, we have others that fail due to improper installation. Even if the material is high-quality but the fitting is improperly done, the cylinder is bound to fail. When the cylinder fails, you don’t have a choice but repair it or consider replacing the whole unit. To reduce the costs of the hydraulic cylinder repairs significantly, you have to identify the real issues. Here are the main four:
1. Inadequate Bearing Area
When the bearing area is insufficient, excess weight is placed on the hydraulic seals. This leads to their deformation. Deformed seals will leak the hydraulic fluid thus failing your whole unit. If your cylinder leaks, the best you can do is replace the seals. This will ensure that there is more bearing area for the cylinder to give you better service.
2. Ballooned Cylinder Tubes
The cylinder tube balloons due to:
• Inadequate wall thickness
• Poor material strength
When the tubes balloon, tolerance is vastly lost between them and the piston seals. Thus, pressure builds in the cylinder that damages the seals. When the seals are damaged, there is uncontrolled leakage of hydraulic fluid. This happens when the high velocity fluid can erode the cylinder seals as well as the tube walls, which ultimately cause the fluid to bypass the seal. The secret is in fitting high-quality cylinder tubes.
3. Bent Cylinder Rods
The cylinder rods bend because of the following issues:
• Improper mounting of the cylinder
• Poor material quality
• Small rod diameter
When the rods bend, extra weight is exerted on the seals, damaging them. You can always check the permissible rod loading for your cylinder in your existing application using the Eulerr formula. You can also void all these hassles by hiring an expert to do the installation.
4. Smooth Rod Finish
The finish is very important in the life of the cylinder rod. If the finish is smooth, the seals will not be adequately lubricated even if you do it often. Due to this, they become rough and crack in the long run, resulting in leakage of the hydraulic fluid.The secret is in installing quality cylinder rods.
Not all hydraulic cylinder repairs are done the same. It depends on the cylinder modifications. So, it’s important to have reputed hydraulic repair companies look at the system to identify the main issue before buying the replacements.