Redesign of solid piston rod of horizontally mounted, free rod end type oil hydraulic cylinder used in fuel handling equipments in nuclear system application

Hydraulic cylinders are used in many industrial applications. They are of different sizes and mountings depending upon the specific requirements. The hydraulic cylinders are primarily used for the development of force and consequently motion and fluid power transmission. In a particular application in fuel handling system, the double acting hydraulic cylinder is used for moving solid fuel of sixteen kilogram weight from one equipment to another in its path of travel to fuel reactor core. The piston rod of the cylinder is kept unsupported at free end for moving the fuel bundle horizontally and retracts back to home position for next cycle of operation. The sagged piston rod interrupts the retraction of piston rod form the extended position due to self weight of solid rod and stalling the further fuel transfer operations intended. Hence it is proposed to re-design the existing piston rod to overcome this problem. This paper will discuss re-designing of solid circular piston rod of the oil hydraulic cylinder.