Telescopic Cylinder

A telescopic cylinder (shown in Fig. 1.6) is used when a long stroke length and a short retracted length are required. The telescopic cylinder extends in stages, each stage consisting of a sleeve that fits inside the previous stage. One application for this type of cylinder is raising a dump truck bed. Telescopic cylinders are available in both single-acting and double-acting models. They are more expensive than standard cylinders due to their more complex construction.

They generally consist of a nest of tubes and operate on the displacement principle. The tubes are supported by bearing rings, the innermost (rear) set of which have grooves or channels to allow fluid flow. The front bearing assembly on each section includes seals and wiper rings. Stop rings limit the movement of each section, thus preventing separation. When the cylinder extends, all the sections move together until the outer section is prevented from further extension by its stop ring. The remaining sections continue out-stroking until the second outermost section reaches the limit of its stroke;this process continues until all sections are extended, the innermost one being the last of all.

Telescopic cylinder

For a given input flow rate, the speed of operation increases in steps as each successive section reaches the end of its stroke. Similarly, for a specific pressure, the load-lifting capacity decreases for each successive section.


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