Feasibility study of hydraulic cylinder subject to high pressure made of aluminum alloy and composite material

Abstract The present research concerns the feasibility study of a hydraulic cylinder for high pressures made of composite material and aluminium alloy. The study concerns the design of a hydraulic cylinder, for applications on a big excavator (pressure = 300 bar), adopting structural steel, aluminium alloy and finally composite material (carbon fibres and epoxy resin). The design methods adopted are both analytical and numerical. The construction technique hypothesized to make the composite component (cylinder tube) is filament winding. To avoid the damage caused by the sliding of the piston seals on the inside diameter of the cylinder tube, an aluminium tube is provided on which the composite material is wound. A series of experimental tests were carried out on a scale prototype. The results show that the solution created by the composite material and the aluminium alloy has a significantly lower weight compared to the steel solution; the value is about 10.5%.