Northlake hydraulic cylinder rod

Hydraulic Cylinder Rod and Chrome Plated Bar

Hydraulic Cylinder Rod.

Are you searching for hydraulic cylinder rods?  You’ve come to the right place.  Northlake Steel manufactures chrome plated (CPO) and induction hardened + chrome plated (IH-CP) cylinder rods.  All of our bars are produced using precision centerless grinding and polishing methods, giving us the ability to produce the highest quality hydraulic cylinder rods around.

What we produce and offer:

Diameter CPO: up to 16″ Rd.  Imperial and metric sizes.

Diameter IH-CP: up to 12″ Rd.  Imperial and metric sizes.

Length: We carry lengths on the floor to 45′ long, and can produce to even longer lengths upon request and review.

Grade: Typical grades 1045, 1050, 10V45, 4140HT, 4150HT, and 17-4 stainless.  Other grades upon request.

Chrome thickness: 0.001″ min thick per side standard.  Other thicknesses upon request.

Surface finish: 12 Ra max standard.  “Super Polish” upon request for even tighter surface control.  Ra, Rz, Rmr, Rk, Rpk, Rvk, and other parameters available for specialized jobs.  “Super Polish” is available on all sizes and lengths of hydraulic cylinder rod.

Straightness: 0.001″ to 0.002″ per foot max and 0.010″ max TIR over the entire bar length.  Our customers have grown to appreciate our special straightness capabilities over the years.

Yield Strength: Many sizes available with 75,000 PSI min yield.  We also carry 50,000 PSI and 100,000 PSI min yield material.

IH – Induction Hardening: Standard fluid power specifications are 50-55 Rc surface hardness with a case depth of 0.050″ min deep.  Other hardness and case depth requirements are available, including deep case IH.  We can also “selectively harden” the rods.  This means we can only harden the areas of the bar that you need hardened.  Are you machining the ends of the bar?  If so we can heat treat the bar so the ends aren’t hardened.  This will save you valuable time, money, and tooling when you do your machining.  Don’t forget, all bars are precision straightened before and after hardening and will meet the highest quality straightness requirements of 0.001″ to 0.002″ per foot max.

Hydraulic Cylinder Background Information

Hydraulic cylinders work by using hydraulic fluid (usually oil) to create pressure.  There is a piston rod which is connected to a piston.  This moves back and forth inside a cylinder barrel.  One end of the barrel is capped (closed).  The other end of the barrel has the cylinder head or gland.  The piston rod will come out of the cylinder through here.  A hydraulic pump will determine the amount of oil flow to the hydraulic cylinder, which in turn moves the piston.

The force (F) of a piston rod will equal the pressure (P) in the cylinder times the area of the piston (A).

F = P x A

Chrome plated hydraulic cylinder rod

Northlake hydraulic cylinder rod

Northlake Grinder Closeup

Northlake centerless grinder up close