Hydraulic cylinders are essential components that ensure your hydraulic equipment run perfectly. For this reason, if you operate a lot of hydraulic equipment, it is important to understand a few problems that can affect the functioning of the equipment. As part of the regular maintenance of your hydraulic equipment, knowing some of the common causes of your hydraulic cylinder problem can help you find solutions as early as possible in order to avoid high maintenance costs brought by regular repairs or replacements. For this reason, here are some of the common problems that you may experience with your hydraulic cylinders and ways to handle them.
Bent Rods
A bent hydraulic cylinder rod can be caused by a variety of factors such as insufficient diameter of the rod, incorrect arrangement of the cylinder mounting, and insufficient strength of the material. A bent cylinder rod will affect the uniformity of the amount of load placed on your hydraulic cylinder seals, which means that too much load will be placed on the seals, leading to failure. For this reason, when looking for hydraulic cylinder rods, you need to have them tested for straightness.
If your hydraulic cylinder rod is bent, you need to check the amount of load you're applying on the load. If it's more than the permissible limits, you need to reduce it. Alternatively, increase the tensile strength and the diameter of the rod when replacing the bent rod.
Inadequate Surface Area of the Bearing Wand
The surface area of the bearing wands on the piston has to be sufficient to support the thrust that's transferred to the cylinder. If this area is not enough, the amount of load placed on the piston seals as well as the rods can be excess. The excess load can cause damage to the seals, leading to failure.
Ballooned Tubes
Ballooning of your cylinder tubes will occur when there is insufficient material strength as well as wall thickness. These factors can usually lead to warping of the cylinder walls, making it easy for high-pressure fluid to escape. The escape of the fluid can reduce the life of your cylinder seals.
Dry Seals
Dry seals are usually linked to the surface rod finish. The rod surface refers to the roughness. If the surface is too smooth, your hydraulic cylinder won't retain lubrication effectively, leading to inadequate lubrication. This inadequate lubrication can in turn reduce the life of the seal. On the other hand, a rod surface that's too rough can increase the ingression of contaminants. Using rod surface treatments should solve this problem.
Look here for more information on hydraulic cylinder repair.
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