Marine & Shipbuilding

The sea attacks a cylinder from the outside in. Salt water and spray never stop, humidity is constant, and a rod that would last for years ashore can pit and rust in months if the plating and seal package are not chosen for marine service. On top of the corrosion problem, a lot of this equipment is safety-critical — steering gear cannot fail — and none of it can simply come off the machine for a quick repair when the machine is a hundred miles offshore.

Corrosion protection is the whole game on the rod. Marine builds call for upgraded plating systems and, on the harshest duty, alternative rod materials, paired with seals and wipers that keep salt out and tolerate constant moisture. Steering-gear cylinders carry the redundancy and safety-factor thinking of any critical actuator, sized so a single fault does not take out the ability to steer. Deck machinery — winches, windlasses, hatch covers, ramps — sees heavy intermittent loads and gets built for both the force and the environment.

Because reliability at sea is non-negotiable, the emphasis is on materials, corrosion protection, and a build that can be inspected and maintained on a long service interval without pulling the vessel. We build steering, deck, and hatch cylinders to the print and the applicable class requirements the customer works to, and we reverse-engineer obsolete units where the vessel's envelope is fixed and the original supplier is long gone. Every cylinder is pressure-tested to its rated working pressure before it ships, so what goes to the water has already proven it holds under load on our floor.

Representative applications

• Steering-gear ram and rotary-vane cylinders
• Deck winch and windlass cylinders
• Hatch cover and ramp cylinders
• Crane and davit cylinders
• Stabilizer and thruster actuation