Salvaging cylinders: General Industry Coverage

END USER: Whayne Supply Co., (800) 494-2963, www.whayne.com.
CHALLENGE: Resurface scratched and rusted cylinder barrels in-house.
SOLUTION: A tube hone machine.
SOLUTION PROVIDER: Sunnen Products Co., (800) 325-3670, www.sunnen.com.

Rebuilding hydraulic components on construction and earth-moving machinery makes good economic sense. The rebuilding trend since 2008 has been strong enough that Caterpillar dealer Whayne Supply Co., Louisville, Ky., added a machine shop in 2009 to its existing hydraulics shop in Corbin, Ky., which rebuilds hydraulic pumps and cylinders. Whayne performs Cat-certified rebuilds of complete machines at its two Power Remanufacturing Center rebuild facilities in Louisville and Corbin. The company has 16 locations and about 1,300 employees overall.

The machine shop includes two vertical mills, two lathes, a drill press, a rotary surface grinder, welding equipment and saws. The shop has five cylinder service bays: one for suspension cylinders, one for lift cylinders on small loaders and three for high-force cylinders. “We can replace the barrel, rod, rod eyes, head and seal areas, hydraulic lines and connections, or custom fabricate new cylinders to spec,” said Michael Carter, the shop’s service coordinator.

Courtesy of Whayne Supply

Caterpillar dealer Whayne Supply hones cylinder barrels up to 21 ‘ long.

Courtesy of Whayne Supply

Sunnen’s HTA series tube hone allows Whayne Supply to resurface scratched and rusted cylinder barrels.

The machine shop also has an HTA series tube hone machine from Sunnen Products Co., St. Louis, which allows Whayne to resurface scratched and rusted cylinder barrels, saving customers 80 percent or more compared to the cost of a new barrel. Sunnen brought the machine in as part of a beta test of the new all-electric HTA tube hone in 2009. Whayne later purchased the machine, which has a 12 ‘ (3.7m) part capacity.