Hydraulic System Testing and Repair: It’s All About The Bench

Cylinder benchA cylinder bench is an essential tool for hydraulic system testing and repair – it enables a hydraulic repair facility like ours to test, repair, and maintain well-used and worn-out hydraulic equipment of all sizes, industries, and applications.

A cylinder repair bench is key for the disassembly, diagnosis, repair, lubrication and re-assembly of hydraulic cylinders. A good cylinder bench is the backbone of any cylinder repair project – it can unscrew and pull apart any nut, gland, or tube that would simply be impossible to do by hand.

Cylinder benches come in all length and sizes, depending on the type of hydraulic work a facility does. Ours happens to be a monster – THIRTY FEET long. It sports up to 65,000 lb/ft of torque, enough to handle even the largest jobs in our area. That gives us plenty of capability to deal with cylinders that experience an extreme amount of stress and abuse. And because hydraulic cylinders are designed to take shock loads that can often run into the millions of cycles, it’s absolutely critical to reassemble them precisely and torque them to the specified industry standards to maximize their performance and lifetime, considering the tough life most hydraulic systems have.

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Bring us your worst and we’ll do our best

hydraulic failuresLet’s be honest. Some hydraulic failures are real monsters. They can strain even the most skilled, experienced, and patient hydraulic repair specialist. Most times the problem is in the pump because that’s the component most subject to wear in a hydraulic system. You probably know all the signs – increased noise, increased heat, erratic cylinder operation, difficulty or inability to develop full output, decreased cylinder speed or hydraulic motor speed, or just plain system failure altogether.

Other times it might be an unusual or exotic hose assembly – some odd metric size, or something. In any case, we might just happen to have a replacement in our inventory or stuck in a drawer somewhere from another repair project. Other times we can scrounge up a replacement product that works or figure out a perfectly suitable work-around that gets you up and running with minimal down-time and expense and without having to resort to a full custom-fabricated assembly.

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3 Things to Prevent Machine Downtime

3 Things to Prevent Machine DowntimeLife for hydraulic machinery is tough enough without having to suffer the abuse that occurs with lack of attention from owners and operators.

If you have hydraulic machinery you rely on day in and day out to earn a living, here are three things you can down to keep your hydraulics happy:

  1. Operate within the manufacturer’s guidelines

Everyone is guilty of occasionally pushing their equipment a little too hard, but if you’re constantly operating beyond the manufacturer’s specs, sooner or later, you’re going to pay for it. Excessive wear and tear on machines not only shortens their life and increases expense, it can also put workers in danger, and nobody wants that. Operating safely means operating within guidelines.

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From Logsplitters to Giant Excavators: We’ll Keep You Running

From Logsplitters to Giant Excavators: We’ll Keep You RunningLet’s face it – nobody likes to spend the time, money, and effort it takes to properly maintain hydraulic equipment. Many business owners like to think, “hey the equipment’s designed to take a beating – how much maintenance does it really need?” The truth of the matter is that a little preventative maintenance can go a long way.

Here at Bay State Hydraulics, we’ve put  more years than we like to think about  into performing planned maintenance for dozens (maybe hundreds) of companies on thousands of pieces of heavy equipment, from logsplitters to giant excavators. In that time, we’ve learned a few things we think all our customers should know about taking care of their equipment so that it lasts as long as possible and costs as little as possible.

We’re talking about planned maintenance and we want to share some thoughts about the things you should pay attention to and have serviced regularly, to avoid unpleasant and potentially expensive surprises:

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