Steel Mill Piston & Cylinders

Our team at Youngstown Hard Chrome was tasked to perform finishing operations on several sets of pistons and cylinders that would be used in a steel mill. We’re experts in highly precise grinding, plating, and polishing services for industrial parts that have an exceptionally large size and weight part capacity. These pistons featured dimensions of 42” O.D. by 40” in length. The cylinders measured 67” O.D. by 30” in length.

Problem:
The size and weight of each part would offer a considerable challenge for our grinding, polishing, and chrome plating processes. In addition, we needed to develop a strategy for handling and stabilizing each workpiece in order to ensure consistent surface coverage across each part’s interior and exterior.

Solution:
We reconfigured our equipment for this project to accommodate a total of 6 parts. Each workpiece was properly positioned using a specialized grinding setup that included custom chucks, grinder hands, and thermally controlled coolant. Once completed, they were lifted and maneuvered into our oversized chrome plating tanks. The process was strictly controlled to ensure that we created a surface that met our customer’s specifications for hardness, low friction, corrosion resistance, and toughness. Each part was then precision polished for smoothness, restoring tolerances to as close as + 0.001”. We also used micrometers, digital chrome thickness testers, profilometers, and visual inspections for dimensional verification. Working under very tight deadlines, we completed each part in record time.

Results:
Our customer realized that there are very few chrome plate specialists in the United States that have the ability to handle part sizes of this magnitude. We helped them avoid a potential production outage that would have ultimately cost them business. They were extremely impressed with the quality of our chrome plating as well as our ability to handle the production volume required.

To learn more about our grinding, polishing, and plating capabilities, please contact us directly for a quotation.

Steel Mill Piston & Cylinder Highlights

Project Name & Description
Steel Mill Pistons and Cylinders
Capabilities Applied/Processes
Grinding
Chrome Plating
Polishing
Equipment Used to Manufacture Part
O.D. and I.D. Grinders
Large Chrome plating tanks
Large Polishers
Overall Part Dimensions
Cylinders -67” diameter x 30” long
Pistons-42” dia. X 40” long
Tightest Tolerances
.001”
Material Used
Industrial Hard Chrome
Material Finish
Grind
Polish
Industry for Use
Steel
In Process Testing/Inspection Performed
Micrometers
Visual Inspection
Digital chrome thickness tester
Profilometer (Surface finish)
Volume
6
Delivery/Turnaround Time
2 weeks
Delivery Location
Mass, USA
Standards Met
As per customer specifications

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