The ability to deal with customer requirements around hydraulic cylinders comes from years of hands-on experience in applications, design and fault-finding from initial assembly all the way through to installation.  

Hydraulic cylinder enquiries come from all manner of different key industries including Aerospace, Construction & Mining, Transport, Agriculture and Automotive. Applications are far-reaching but have included bridges, slurry gates, factories, crushing units and excavators, to name a few. 

Whether it’s stripping cylinders down and replacing seal kits, or building a custom cylinder from scratch, our team of engineers are fully capable of handling your requirements from our Engineering Solution Centres across the UK, Ireland and the Benelux. 

A hydraulic cylinder, sometimes referred to as a ram, linear actuator, or rotary actuator, is driven by hydraulic fluid to pull, push, lift, hold or lower, or rotate, within an application.

They can vary in size of manufacture, depending on the system requirements, with rod lengths up to 6 metres in length and bore sizes from 25mm to 600mm. 

There are various examples of hydraulic cylinders across most industry sectors.  Some examples of use are the from lifting or rotating a bridge, lifting arms on a digger or excavator, hydraulic presses, compactors, and virtually any application that requires movement.

1. Barrel/Tube – main tubing that contains internal components of a hydraulic cylinder
2. Piston – moves the Piston Rod back and forth from the pressure of hydraulic fluid entering one of two chambers
3. Piston Rod – extending from the Piston, the rod moves out of the barrel in an oscillating motion
4. End Cap (Base) – the cylinder base is welded or threaded onto the end of the barrel, and helps to keep the structure rigid, as well contain the pressure within the barrel
5. Gland – holding all the rod seals and bearings, this element allows for the rod to move smoothly in and out of the barrel
6. Seals – there are specific seals including Rod Seals, Piston Seals and Wipers that prevent fluid leakage and maintain hydraulic pressure
7. Guide Rings – these are required to guide the piston and rod, preventing any damage from friction and protecting the seals

Learn more about Hydraulic Cylinders in our handy guide here.

From bespoke custom built cylinders to reverse engineered and bespoke hydraulic cylinders, Flowtech engineers are available to create various types of constructed cylinders: 

• Telescopic
• Bolted construction
• Welded construction
• Tie-rod construction

We build cylinders to customer requirements and work with selected manufacturers to ensure that quality assurance is guaranteed, with bolted cylinders conforming to ISO 6022 and tie rod cylinders conforming to ISO 6020/2. 

In many instances, a customer will require a brand new cylinder to be manufactured from scratch as part of a new industrial project, which will be passed on to our Technical Design team inside an Engineering Solutions Centre (ESC).

Bespoke or custom-built cylinders are designed utilising the latest 3D CAD packages, machined utilising CNC machinery and then hand built, tested, and certified at our Engineering Solution Centres to suit specific needs of the end use and application.

Consideration is made in material choice and components to provide exceptional life and reliability from your new cylinders.

If, however, you have an existing cylinder and would like a duplicate/replacement but do not have drawings for manufacture, we can reverse engineer a solution to meet your needs. 

Our Engineering Solution Centre will strip down your existing cylinder and capture all the key dimensions to replicate a new cylinder to meet your fit, form and functional requirements.

Our Engineering Solution Centres can also repair faulty or broken hydraulic cylinders, where they can be properly serviced and returned to previous functionality, rather than going to the expense of manufacturing a replacement from scratch.

The Engineering Solutions Centre will strip down and inspect your cylinders. Following this, a report will be compiled of the necessary repairs and a quote will be sent out for approval.

Once the purchase order has been received your cylinder will be repaired to operate as new.

Our Hydraulic Cylinder repair services include:

• Disassembly and Inspection
• Resealing
• Maintenance
• Failure Diagnosis
• Testing
• Rebuild and Refurbishment
• Repair