Cushions much like the ones on your couch right now are designed to take the impact force that comes from the piston moving quickly and abruptly stop when coming in contact with the Head or Cap. While this can happen occasionally without major damage to the cylinder, over time this impact loading can cause the tie rods to fail due to fatigue loading, or can cause excess compression loading to the piston, head or cap. This causes distortion of these parts which will ultimately lead to cylinder failure.

Let’s face it, your maintenance team works hard for you. They put in their eight hours per day, five days per week, and then they are on call the other 128 hours each week that they are not out on the shop floor making repairs. They climb in the machines, deal with all of the dirt and oil, the metal shavings, they go outside to fix the heating system when it is 5° below zero, and are on the roof patching it when it is well over 100° outside.  These guys put in the extra hours when the shop is closed to make sure the machines are up and running every day to keeping the parts flowing out, and the money flowing in. Anything management can do to make their lives easier is ALWAYS appreciated.  When you are looking at purchasing cylinders for your machines that your maintenance team will have to install and maintain, there are some features you need to make sure you get to make their lives easier.

As you crawl out from under your car after loosening and removing the oil drain plug, watching the black oil start to run out into the drain pan you think to yourself, I wonder how many people change the oil when it doesn’t need changing?   You inspect the oil drain plug, it has a magnet on it to attract metal in the oil, as you wipe it on a paper towel you don’t see anything unusual...

It is Halloween night and the goblins are out begging for candy, I hear the door bell and head towards the door to see what is going to be greeting me this time.  After they leave I check my display outside where I have fake blood pumping down a fake corpse lying in a coffin.  The pump spatters a little because some of the fake blood evaporated. As I am adding more 'blood' to my pump I start thinking about work and how a hydraulic cylinder will act if not properly set up...

You know that sinking feeling when you take the first bite of a much needed lunch, the phone rings and you answer to hear the words "We have a problem; it’s a new installation and the tube seals have blown!" With thoughts of catching a snack later in the day, you attend the scene of the crime...

Any piece of equipment operates best when it is used regularly within normal guidelines.

Take for example a classic car; it ran perfectly when you put it away last fall, but something happened during the long winter.

Ever thought that you have had to go a long way around a design problem to mount a particular component? Here's a hint that might possibly be a ‘quick-fix’ and a help if you're finding yourself in a similar situation.

Sheffer fits tie rod supports to long stroke cylinders to stop the tie rods from twanging like an out of tune banjo - and the design feature does a wonderful job of achieving that aim.

When charged with the notorious "beating your head against a wall", and at the very least unpleasant, task of choosing a cylinder supplier -- one can quickly become disenchanted with all of the industry hype and mumbo jumbo.

From the mammoth sized companies, in which you can get lost and slip through the cracks, to the miniature sized companies that don't offer competitive quality or the same kinds of guarantees as the "big guys" -- the options seem pretty limited.