nylon or teflon coating as bearing surface?

[BrianE22]

I'm rebuilding a hydraulic actuator. The endcaps used a coating that I believe is nylon as a bearing surface for the actuator rod. The coating has come off (I believe the actuator was run pretty hard before I got it).

I'm looking for suggestions for a coating that would make a good bearing surface. The end caps are made of aluminum. A high PV value would be a must - good adhesion to aluminum, high temperature capability and resistance to hydraulic fluids would all be factors.

I'm thinking a nylon or teflon. Any suggestions for material or company?

 

[btrueblood]

Brian,

Do you mean the rod bearing, i.e. the area where the rod penetrates the endcap, just had a coating applied?

I'm more used to seeing replaceable, press-fit or otherwise captive, plain bearings in that position. The actuator you have may have been purposely designed as a non-rebuildable cylinder.

If you really do want to just recoat (versus milling out a suitable press-fit bearing pocket, which I'd prefer personally), look into Xylan coatings from

http://www.whitfordww.com

 

[BrianE22]

The actuator is from MTS and their literature says the following:

"Piston rod bearings—Series 244 Hydraulic Actuators are supplied with high-capacity polymer bearings bonded directly to the end caps. The integral bonded bearing design is standard because of its high sideload tolerance and resistance to failure from galling
and seizure."

MTS offers a rebuilding sevice for their actuators (including recoating and re-boring of the endcaps) but it's a bit pricey for me.