Hydraulic cylinder seals are crucial when it comes to the safe functioning of a hydraulic cylinder.
There are a lot of industries which use heavy equipment which rely on improving hydraulic seal technology, and here we refer to: the automotive industry, the oil and gas industry, the aerospace industry. All the people who work in these industries know that the hydraulic cylinder seals are, maybe, some of the most important parts of a hydraulic cylinder.
The explosion which took place in 1986 – the Challenger space shuttle – happened because of some malfunctioning hydraulic seals – the low temperatures solidified the material which is inside the seal and this caused the seal’ s failure.
Hydraulic cylinder seals are really cheap but the problems that they can produce if they are not installed properly can be huge. In order to be able to prevent a disaster, there are some things that you should keep in mind. First of all, when you have to select the hydraulic cylinder seals, you have to know that the incorrect selection may be a cause for the seal’s failure. This is why you have to be very careful when you select the seals that you want:
- the seals must be able to withstand the temperatures that you usually work with;
- the seals must work at the desired speed and temperature.
Something else which should be considered when it comes to hydraulic cylinder seals is their installation:
- when you want to install a seal, you have to be sure that all the parts which are made of metal are clean, and that all the seal housings are clean too.
- the most important of all is to be sure that the correct seal is being used – if not, a disaster could happen;
- you have to be sure that you have installed properly the pressure side of the seal;
- when you install a seal, you have to be sure that all the parts which are installed have been lubricated, including the seal.
All these things are very important and should always be checked because otherwise bad things could take place. When it comes to the hydraulic cylinder seals’ failure, we have to know that there are some important factors which can lead to a failure, and some of these are:
- a major cause is the improper installation – the seal must be clean, it has to be protected from cuts and nicks and it has to be lubricated if we do not want it to fail. There are some other things which matter: when the seal is over tightened, when the seal is installed upside down. These are some common problems and in order to avoid them we just have to be very careful!
- another problem is the system’ s contamination – usually, this happens because of some external factors like: mud, dirt, dust, because the system is not cleaned properly.
- another problem is the heat degradation – the hydraulic cylinder seals are not chosen in order to be able to withstand certain temperatures.
So, in order to have some hydraulic cylinder seals which work properly, we just have to be careful when you choose them, when we install them and how we maintain them!