Engineering:Hyco International Inc

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Short description: manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders
The Hyco International Logo features a stylized Hydraulic Cylinder

Hyco International Inc is one of the world's largest manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders. Hyco International was established in June 1998 by Centre Partners, a New York based investment group, with the acquisition of Dana Corporation’s hydraulic cylinder business consisting of 4 cylinder manufacturing facilities in Canada, Germany and the United States.[1] Hyco made three additional acquisitions of hydraulic cylinder manufacturers in Canada (1999), Germany (1999)[2] and Brazil (2001). In 2000, the facility in Arab, Alabama was expanded.[3] Most recently (2008) the Hengstler facility in Hausach, Germany underwent major expansion. Hyco International is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.[4]

Company overview

Hyco International has grown to become one of the world’s largest manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders employing over 600 personnel. The company manufactures on average over 2000 cylinders per day. Current annual sales are approximately $120 million US. This represents about a 4% share of the total global hydraulic cylinder market.[5]

Today Hyco International has 4 manufacturing plants on 3 continents making it a truly global manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders. These plants include:

  • Hyco Canada in St. Wenceslas, Quebec, Canada[6]
  • Hyco Alabama in Arab, Alabama, USA[7]
  • Hyco Hidrover in Caxias do Sul RS, Brazil[8]
  • Hyco Hengstler in Hausach, Germany[9]

Product

Hyco focuses on manufacturing high duty cycle welded body hydraulic cylinders in both single stage rod style and multi-stage telescopic style, large bore & long stroke included. The welded style of cylinder design is preferred for mobile hydraulic equipment and heavy industrial machinery. These cylinders are used in a broad variety of industrial sectors including:[10]

  • Construction Equipment
  • Material Handling Equipment
  • Mining and Aggregates
  • Waste Management and Recycling
  • Defense
  • Heavy equipment
  • Forestry, Pulp, and Paper
  • Agricultural Equipment
  • Heavy Trucks
  • Oil Field Equipment
  • Marine and Shipyard Equipment
  • Mobile Hydraulic Machinery Attachments.

Hydraulic cylinders

Hydraulic cylinders are fundamental components of hydraulic machinery. The function of a hydraulic cylinder is to convert the hydrostatic power of a fluid into mechanical power. They are the actuators or muscles of heavy equipment providing motion and force including steering, suspension, pushing, pulling, lifting, lowering, tilting, extending, clamping, stabilizing, and so on.[11]

A Cut Away of a Hyco Welded Body Hydraulic Cylinder showing the internal components
Hyco Large Bore, Long Stroke Telescopic Cylinders are used on heavy equipment such as this oil drilling rig

More than 90% of Hyco's production is custom designed for specific applications. These cylinders are built to suit the exact requirements of Hyco’s customers and are optimized for the specific machine application. These customers are mostly original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s) in the mobile hydraulic cylinder market. The remaining 10% of production consists of catalogued, multi-use cylinders of a standard design.[12]

Hydraulic cylinders produced range from miniature hydraulic cylinders of only 1/2-inch (12 mm) bore up to very large-bore and long-stroke hydraulic cylinders of 36-inch (914 mm) bore. Telescoping cylinder products have been produced in extremely large sizes up to 600-inch stroke (15.24 meters).

Custom cylinder designs produced by Hyco involve: specially designed mountings to interface with customer equipment; special seals, materials, and coatings to meet environmental and operational requirements; value added components assembled to the actuator such as fittings, piping, valves and guards; electronic stroke and feedback control sensors.

Cylinder manufacturing processes

A Robotic Welder at the Hyco Ultrametal plant in Kitchener, Ontario

Hyco uses a large number of manufacturing processes in order to produce their final products. The processes include rod and tube machining and grinding, custom metal machining, component machining, skive and roller burnishing, friction and inertia welding, plating, painting, and hydraulic component assembly. Robotic and CNC machines are used in many of these processes. Several plants specialize in large capacity machining and handling the very heavy, oversized components used to produce very large bore, very long stroke hydraulic rod and telescoping cylinders.

Hyco manufactured cylinders are well known to mobile equipment manufacturers for their application-specific features, including sealing elements, induction hardened chrome plated piston rods and roller burnished tube bores. Hyco has maintained long-standing relationships (many of over 25 years) with a variety of leading multinational OEMs.[13]

Hyco Cylinders are used worldwide on Mobile Hydraulic Equipment like these two on the arm of a construction excavator

References