Hydraulic cylinders are used extensively in engine and equipment design, but despite their ubiquity, many people don’t know much about them. Our team at Dalton Hydraulics has been working in this industry for over 21 years, and we want to shed some light on the matter.
We have put together a brief overview of how hydraulic cylinders work to give you a better understanding of these important mechanisms.
- Basic design – To understand how hydraulic cylinders work, you first need to understand their design. At their most basic, hydraulic cylinders are tubes containing a fluid (usually mineral oil), and they are connected to pistons.
- Basic principle – All hydraulic mechanisms are based on Pascal’s observations that pressure applied to one piston in a system will transfer to a second piston, and that pressure applied to a fluid in one direction will spread out into all directions equally. When one piston connected to a hydraulic cylinder applies pressure to the fluid inside, that force is transferred to the mechanism at the other end. The energy acting on the fluid is then converted into mechanical energy to power the machine its attached to.
- Applications – Hydraulic cylinders have a wide variety of applications. For example, many office chairs use hydraulic cylinders to allow users to adjust the height of the seat. In addition, these cylinders are used extensively in engine design as well as in industrial equipment. They are highly versatile and can be used to apply force and to create linear or rotary motion.