How to rebuild a hydraulic cylinder?

How to rebuild a hydraulic cylinder?
How to rebuild a hydraulic cylinder? Image source: Pixabay

A hydraulic cylinder is powering equipment that can be used for getting power or rotary or linear motion in certain equipment and devices.

The use of this equipment is done mostly in industries for various purposes. Over time cleaning your hydraulic cylinder is important for its proper maintenance and ensuring its longevity. Due to the harsh working conditions or putting your hydraulic pumps to extensive everyday use, you need to know about the cleaning process.

Although you can contact agencies that manufacture and rebuild your hydraulic cylinder such as Riverlake hydraulic it might be a good idea to know the exact process. At least in need, you do the rebuilding and cleaning process on your own.

Reassembling your hydraulic cylinder

There are 4 basic steps that you need to focus on when maintaining or rebuilding your hydraulic cylinder. These are Dissembling the unit This step is necessary for those who are looking to find out problems in the functioning of their hydraulic device or even running a complete maintenance check.

One can use a simple screwdriver at home to open up the screws from the shaft side of the cylinder and then take out the parts one by one such as the piston, tube bore, rods, welds, seals, pumps.

Checking out for problems

Once you are through dissembling the device you can run some basic checkups to find out the existing problems and find out the root cause.

There can be some basic problems such as a weathered part of the cylinder or the ruptured shaft or a damaged seal that is hampering the normal working mechanism of the device.

Approaching a certain company for repair and maintenance

When you have done some basic assessment tests and in case you need expert’s help you can call up any agency or company that specializes in fixing the problem such as repairing the part, servicing the part, or installing a new equipment part.

One of the best companies for this would be to call Riverlake hydraulic for its highly efficient team of experts who are certified and have huge experience in finding efficient solutions to various problems of hydraulic cylinders.

Reassembling the unit

Once you are through with the repairing or the maintenance you have to reassemble the components back to their places. For this, you need to check whether each part is getting placed properly in its position. Clean up the pistons, cylinders, and pumps both externally and internally and then place them back into their respective positions. Finally put in the fasters and ensure that they are tightly secured.

Doing the pre-assembly check

When you are assembling the hydraulic cylinder components it might be a good idea to run through some pre-assembly checklist which is given below for you.

Pistons.

Ensure that the burrs or the port heads are smooth and don’t have jagged edges from the sides which is a sign of damage due to general wear and tear of the device. Tube bore Clean up the tube bore and ensure that it is smooth and rust-free.

Rods

The rods should be wiped to remove the dust and there should not be any pits or scratches on the surface. Of course, it should also be free from rust and platter.

Welds

These should be uniform and free of any porousness, inclusions and undercutting. Also maintain that they are free from spatter and slag.

Seals

First, you need to check out for signs of visual contamination. Position properly and ensure that the seals are put back in place. There should not have any sharp edges or surface damage.

Washing process

Before reassembling the experts at any hydraulic repairing or assembling agency will undergo the wash process and you should do this as well.

Barrels and tubes

After you have placed the barrels and tubes on the washing tank, wipe them clean to remove the upper dust layer. To remove the slag and contamination within you need to ensure that you allow fast running water or hosepipe to clean them up.
After this is done you can use any scrubber to scrub them from the internal and external faces. Then allow it to be rinsed with fast running water multiple times.

Cylinder rods

Ensure to clean up with a clean cloth and then wipe them clean with a scrubber and rinse properly. Ensure that the welded joints are cleaned properly.

Pistons, glands, taps, etc.

Place the parts on a washer and allow them to be cleaned. Ensure a basic visual check is done and then allow them to be dried out before reassembling them.

Approaching a servicing agency

If you are not able to do hydraulic cylinder cleaning on your own then it would be a good idea to hand over the entire process to an experienced team such as the Riverlake hydraulic to ensure proper cleaning with all industry standards and safety precautions met.