Keeping up with production demands is a proven challenge in the lumber industry. To stay competitive, operations demand higher performance and lower cost for automated equipment. Lumber processing end-users want solutions to the problems encountered in the rough environment of the mills where temperatures fluctuate, dust produced from the processes damages your equipment, and grate machinery.

Much the same way that you want the columns on your front porch to have the strength to support the roof --avoiding any and all Tim the Tool Man Taylor incidents -- column strength is a critical piece when addressing cylinder design as well.  So many of us don’t understand what it is and how important it is; let's investigate some of the factors associated with it to help gain a better understanding.

                  As mentioned in an earlier article, one of the three N.F.P.A. cylinder mounting classes is fixed non-centerline mounts. These mounts include side lug (MS2), end lug (MS7), side flush (MS4), and foot bracket (MS1). In applications where a fixed non-centerline mount is required, Sheffer strongly recommends employing a thrust key plate or dowel pinning the cylinder depending upon the specific mount. This is done to minimize shear loads on the mounting bolts as well as providing a means of cylinder alignment.

In 1962, E.F. Houghton Co. published A Handbook On Hydraulic and Pneumatic Packings for the fluid power industry. In the opening chapter there is an illustration of a “typical animal hide” which depicted the best parts of the hide that could be fabricated into leather “U” cups, “V” rings, and gaskets to seal fluid power cylinders.

Cylinder Mounting & Column Loading

“I need 100,000 pounds of force on a 120” stroke with a 2” diameter piston rod and clevis mount.” A click and then there is no one on the other end of the phone. 

Cylinders convert a fluid pressure into a mechanical force.  The input fluid pressure acts on the surface area of the cylinders piston displacing it to create a linear movement of the piston rod.

Well, if that isn't a loaded question. Over the years more people than you would expect have proposed this puzzle and while there may be no single answer to this complex query, there are many variables to consider in attempting to answer it -- so let's start there.

In our experience, the call for more than one mounting feature on a cylinder is by no means a rare event.

We won’t say that all mounts can be combined; as clearly there are some features which would just interfere with each other. For instance, a Front Head (FHF) and a Side Lug (SL) cannot coexist on the same end of a cylinder. What is possible, however, is to have an FHF (Head) mount combined with a Side Lug at the Cap; if that serves a useful design purpose for you.

Boosters or intensifiers are used to create a high pressure output from a low pressure input. Much like how an electrical transformer works by trading current for voltage, a hydraulic booster transforms a larger volume of low pressure fluid into a smaller volume at a higher pressure.