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Hydraulics

Large hydraulic actuators are almost universally supplied chrome plated, and are usually rebuilt with chrome plate at the various hydraulic rebuild shops located around the world.  However, HVOF coatings have proved to be more wear and corrosion resistant, and of course eliminate the growing OSHA issues with the use of chrome plate.  For some years a few shops have used HVOF coatings for actuator rod rebuild.  Now, however, some new hydraulics are being supplied with HVOF coatings from the manufacturer, driving increased acceptance of the technology across the industry.  We expect to see significant growth in the use of HVOF or other thermal-01 spray coatings, driven by increasing regulatory costs and customer demand for better performance.

The advantage of HVOF and other thermal spray coatings is that thermal spray is a standard industrial process that has been in use for many years.  There are many vendors of thermal spray services, and commercial equipment is readily available.

Thermal spray technology is ideally suited to coating large hydraulic rods, which can be coated quickly and built up just as is typically done with chrome plate.  However, if you are considering getting into this technology in place of hard chrome you should be aware that it is very different from chrome plating.  While putting it into place in a repair or plating operation is not that difficult, it is not a trivial change since the technology is so different from chrome plating and since the coated surface must be superfinished to prevent seal wear.

A document will shortly be available that will discuss all these issues in detail.  Meanwhile, you can learn more about the technology by clicking on the Thermal Spray link from the Wear and Corrosion Alternatives/Hard Chrome Plating Alternatives button above (or, of course, by contacting us at rowan@rowantechnology.com.

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Hydraulics