At Aggressive Hydraulics, safety isn’t just a priority; it’s embedded in every stage of our custom hydraulic cylinder design and manufacturing process. One of the key elements that ensures the reliability and durability of our products is the calculation of engineering safety factors. But what exactly are these safety factors, and why are they crucial in our industry?

What Are Safety Factors?

A safety factor is a design principle that expresses how much stronger a system is than it needs to be for an intended load. In simpler terms, it’s a measure of the extra strength built into a product to handle unexpected stresses, ensuring that it performs reliably under various conditions.

For example, a safety factor of 1 would mean a product is designed to withstand exactly the maximum load expected. However, in practice, safety factors are often greater than 1, providing a margin of safety to account for uncertainties in material properties, manufacturing processes, and real-world application conditions.

Why Do We Calculate Safety Factors?

The primary reason we calculate safety factors is to ensure that our hydraulic cylinders are safe and effective in every application. By incorporating safety factors into our designs, we guarantee that our cylinders can handle not just the expected loads but also any unforeseen stresses or pressures that might arise. This proactive approach minimizes the risk of failure, which could lead to costly downtime, equipment damage, or even injury.

Are Higher Safety Factors Overkill?

Some may argue that safety factors greater than 1 are unnecessary and merely add extra weight and material costs. However, this isn’t the case in most industrial settings. While low safety factors might save on material, they demand extensive testing, rigorous inspection, and highly controlled manufacturing processes. These requirements often drive up costs elsewhere, making them impractical for many applications. Higher safety factors, on the other hand, provide a cost-effective way to ensure reliability without needing such intensive measures.

Communicating Performance Parameters

At Aggressive Hydraulics, we put safety factors on every print to consistently communicate the performance parameters of our designs to our customers. This transparency helps customers understand the capabilities and limits of our cylinders, ensuring they choose the right product for their specific needs.

Introducing the AHI Safety Factor Tool

To further enhance our design process, we’ve developed the proprietary “AHI Safety Factor Tool.” This innovative tool allows us to enter all dimensions and materials for the cylinder, end cap, base mount, rod mount, case, rod, piston, head, fluid lines, ports, wear bearings, and more. It then calculates all values and scores the configuration, providing a comprehensive safety factor for the entire system.

This tool not only speeds up repetitive tasks but also combines multiple calculations into one streamlined process, driving discipline in our documentation and ensuring consistency across all designs. With the AHI Safety Factor Tool, we can quickly and accurately determine if a cylinder will fail by burst calculations, tensile loading calculations, and column loading (or buckling).

Ensuring Durability and Reliability

The AHI Safety Factor Tool evaluates several critical failure modes:

  • Burst: Will the cylinder barrel catastrophically fail under pressure?
  • Tension: Will it pull apart under load?
  • Column: Will it buckle under compressive forces?

By rigorously assessing these potential failure modes, we can design cylinders that are not just fit for purpose but built to exceed expectations.

At Aggressive Hydraulics, our commitment to engineering excellence ensures that every custom hydraulic cylinder we produce meets the highest safety standards. By incorporating robust safety factors into our designs and leveraging advanced tools like the AHI Safety Factor Tool, we continue to deliver reliable, high-performing products to our customers.

By focusing on safety factors, Aggressive Hydraulics demonstrates a commitment to quality and reliability that sets us apart in the industry. Whether you’re looking for a standard solution or a custom-designed hydraulic cylinder, you can trust that our products are engineered with your safety and satisfaction in mind.