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Hydraulic cylinder

Operation

Hydraulic cylinders get their power from pressurized hydraulic fluid, which is typically oil. The hydraulic cylinder consists of a cylinder barrel, in which a piston connected to a piston rod moves back and forth. The barrel is closed on each end by the cylinder bottom (also called the cap end) and by the cylinder head where the piston rod comes out of the cylinder. The piston has sliding rings and seals. The piston divides the inside of the cylinder in two chambers, the bottom chamber (cap end) and the piston rod side chamber (rod end). The hydraulic pressure acts on the piston to do linear work and motion.
Flanges, trunnions, and/or clevisses are mounted to the cylinder body. The piston rod also has mounting attachments to connect the cylinder to the object or machine component that it is pushing.
A hydraulic cylinder is the actuator or "motor" side of this system. The "generator" side of the hydraulic system is the hydraulic pump which brings in a fixed or regulated flow of oil to the bottom side of the hydraulic cylinder, to move the piston rod upwards. The piston pushes the oil in the other chamber back to the reservoir. If we assume that the oil pressure in the piston rod chamber is approximately zero, the force F on the piston rod equals the pressure P in the cylinder times the piston area A:

The piston moves instead downwards if oil is pumped into the piston rod side chamber and the oil from the piston area flows back to the reservoir without pressure. The pressure in the piston rod area chamber is (Pull Force) / (piston area - piston rod area).

Parts of a hydraulic cylinders

A hydraulic cylinder consists of the following parts:

Cylinder barrel
The cylinder barrel is mostly a seamless thick walled forged pipe that must be machined internally. The cylinder barrel is ground and/or honed internally.

Cylinder Bottom or Cap
In most hydraulic cylinders, the barrel and the bottom portion are welded together. This can damage the inside of the barrel if done poorly. Therefore some cylinder designs have a screwed or flanged connection from the cylinder end cap to the barrel. (See "Tie Rod Cylinders" below) In this type the barrel can be disassembled and repaired in future.

Cylinder Head
The cylinder head is sometimes connected to the barrel with a sort of a simple lock (for simple cylinders). In general however the connection is screwed or flanged. Flange connections are the best, but also the most expensive. A flange has to be welded to the pipe before machining. The advantage is that the connection is bolted and always simple to remove. For larger cylinder sizes, the disconnection of a screw with a diameter of 300 to 600 mm is a huge problem as well as the alignment during mounting.

Piston
The piston is a short, cylinder-shaped metal component that separates the two sides of the cylinder barrel internally. The piston is usually machined with grooves to fit elastomeric or metal seals. These seals are often O-rings, U-cups or cast iron rings. They prevent the pressurized hydraulic oil from passing by the piston to the chamber on the opposite side. This difference in pressure between the two sides of the piston causes the cylinder to extend and retract. Piston seals vary in design and material according to the pressure and temperature requirements that the cylinder will see in service. Generally speaking, elastomeric seals made from nitrile rubber or other materials are best in lower temperature environments while seals made of Viton are better for higher temperatures. The best seals for high temperature are cast iron piston rings.

Piston Rod
The piston rod is typically a hard chrome-plated piece of cold-rolled steel which attaches to the piston and extends from the cylinder through the rod-end head. In double rod-end cylinders, the actuator has a rod extending from both sides of the piston and out both ends of the barrel. The piston rod connects the hydraulic actuator to the machine component doing the work. This connection can be in the form of a machine thread or a mounting attachment such as a rod-clevis or rod-eye. These mounting attachments can be threaded or welded to the piston rod or, in some cases, they are a machined part of the rod-end.

Rod Gland
The cylinder head is fitted with seals to prevent the pressurized oil from leaking past the interface between the rod and the head. This area is called the rod gland. It often has another seal called a rod wiper which prevents contaminants from entering the cylinder when the extended rod retracts back into the cylinder. The rod gland also has a rod bearing. This bearing supports the weight of the piston rod and guides it as it passes back and forth through the rod gland. In some cases, especially in small hydraulic cylinders, the rod gland and the rod bearing are made from a single integral machined part.

Other parts

• Cylinder bottom connection
• Seals
• Cushions

A hydraulic cylinder should be used for pushing and pulling only. No bending moments or side loads should be transmitted to the piston rod or the cylinder. For this reason, the ideal connection of a hydraulic cylinder is a single clevis with a spherical ball bearing. This allows the hydraulic actuator to move and allow for any misalignment between the actuator and the load it is pushing.

Hydraulic Cylinder Designs

There are primarily two styles of hydraulic cylinder construction used in industry: tie rod style cylinders and welded body style cylinders.

Tie Rod Cylinders
Tie rod style hydraulic cylinders use high strength threaded steel rods to hold the two end caps to the cylinder barrel. This method of construction is most often seen in industrial factory applications. Small bore cylinders usually have 4 tie rods, while large bore cylinders may require as many as 16 or 20 tie rods in order to retain the end caps under the tremendous forces produced. Tie rod style cylinders can be completely disassembled for service and repair.
The National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) has standardized the dimensions of hydraulic tie rod cylinders. This enables cylinders from different manufacturers to interchange within the same mountings.

Welded Body Cylinders
Welded body cylinders have no tie rods. The barrel is welded directly to the end caps. The ports are welded to the barrel. The front rod gland is usually threaded into or bolted to the cylinder barrel. This allows the piston rod assembly and the rod seals to be removed for service.
Welded body cylinders have a number of advantages over tie rod style cylinders. Welded cylinders have a narrower body and often a shorter overall length enabling them to fit better into the tight confines of machinery. Welded cylinders do not suffer from failure due to tie rod stretch at high pressures and long strokes. The welded design also lends itself to customization. Special features are easily added to the cylinder body. These may include special ports, custom mounts, valve manifolds, and so on.

The smooth outer body of welded cylinders also enables the design of multi-stage telescopic cylinders.

Welded body hydraulic cylinders dominate the mobile hydraulic equipment market such as construction equipment (excavators, bulldozers, and road graders) and material handling equipment (forklift trucks, telehandlers, and lift-gates). They are also used in heavy industry such as cranes, oil rigs, and large off-road vehicles in above-ground mining.

Piston Rod construction

The piston rod of a hydraulic cylinder operates both inside and outside the barrel, and consequently both in and out of the hydraulic fluid and surrounding atmosphere.

Metallic coatings
Smooth and hard surfaces are desirable on the outer diameter of the piston rod and slide rings for proper sealing. Corrosion resistance is also advantageous. A chromium layer may often be applied on the outer surfaces of these parts. However, chromium layers may be porous, thereby attracting moisture and eventually causing oxidation. In harsh marine environments, the steel is often treated with both a nickel layer and a chromium layer. Often 40 to 150 micrometer thick layers are applied. Sometimes solid stainless steel rods are used. High quality stainless steel such as AISI 316 may be used for low stress applications. Other stainless steels such as AISI 431 may also be used where there are higher stresses, but lower corrosion concerns.

Ceramic coatings
Due to shortcomings of metallic materials, ceramic coatings were developed. Initially ceramic protection schemes seemed ideal, but porosity was higher than projected. Recently the corrosion resistant semi ceramic Lunac 2+ coatings were introduced. These hard coatings are non porous and do not suffer from high brittleness.

Lengths
Piston rods are generally available in lengths which are cut to suit the application. As the common rods have a soft or mild steel core, their ends can be welded or machined for a screw thread.

Special hydraulic cylinders

Telescopic cylinder
Telescopic cylinder (ISO 1219 symbol) The length of a hydraulic cylinder is the total of the stroke, the thickness of the piston, the thickness of bottom and head and the length of the connections. Often this length does not fit in the machine. In that case the piston rod is also used as a piston barrel and a second piston rod is used. These kind of cylinders are called telescopic cylinders. If we call a normal rod cylinder single stage, telescopic cylinders are multi-stage units of two, three, four, five and even six stages. In general telescopic cylinders are much more expensive than normal cylinders. Most telescopic cylinders are single acting (push). Double acting telescopic cylinders must be specially designed and manufactured. The cylinder barrel is mostly a seamless thick walled forged pipe that must be machined internally. The cylinder barrel is ground and/or honed internally.

Plunger cylinder
A hydraulic cylinder without a piston or with a piston without seals is called a plunger cylinder. A plunger cylinder can only be used as a pushing cylinder; the maximum force is piston rod area multiplied by pressure. This means that a piston cylinder in general has a relatively thick piston rod.

Differential cylinder (ISO 1219 symbol)
A differential cylinder acts like a normal cylinder when pulling. If the cylinder however has to push, the oil from the piston rod side of the cylinder is not returned to the reservoir, but goes to the bottom side of the cylinder. In such a way, the cylinder goes much faster, but the maximum force the cylinder can give is like a plunger cylinder. A differential cylinder can be manufactured like a normal cylinder, and only a special control is added.

Rephasing cylinder
Rephasing cylinders are two or more cylinders plumbed in series or parallel, with the bores and rods sized such that all rods extend and/or retract equally when flow is directed to the first, or last, cylinder within the system.
In "parallel" applications, the bore and rod sizes are always the same, and the cylinders are always used in pairs. In "series" applications, the bore and rod sizes are always different, and two or more cylinders may be used. In these applications, the bores and rods are sized such that all rods extend or retract equally when flow is applied to the first or last cylinder within the system. This hydraulic synchronization of rod positions eliminates the need for a flow divider in the hydraulic system, or any type of mechanical connection between the cylinder rods to achieve synchronization.

Position sensing "smart" hydraulic cylinder
Position sensing hydraulic cylinders eliminate the need for a hollow cylinder rod. Instead, an external sensing “bar” utilizing Hall-Effect technology senses the position of the cylinder’s piston. This is accomplished by the placement of a permanent magnet within the piston. The magnet propagates a magnetic field through the steel wall of the cylinder, providing a locating signal to the sensor.

A note about popular terminology
At least in the USA, popular usage sometimes refers to the whole assembly of cylinder, piston, and piston rod (or more) collectively as a "piston", which is incorrect. See, for instance, "Hydraulic piston raises the table from 19 (in.) to 26 (in.)" Marine Tables, Inc. (Select item 3 of 8, near the bottom.)