Mining and heavy equipment
High-pressure hydraulic cylinders and machined parts — built to your drawing
We build high-pressure hydraulic cylinders and machined components to customer drawings. We welcome drawings from makers of mining and heavy equipment, undercarriage suppliers, cylinder manufacturers and rebuild shops. For welding and pressure testing high-pressure cylinders, we designed and built our own automated welding cell and pressure test bench, including their automation and the test bench software. Machining, welding, washing, assembly and pressure testing are done at Minos. Heat treatment, plating, non-destructive testing and painting are done by suppliers, and we manage them as your single point of contact.
Case study
Single-acting track tensioning cylinder for a mining excavator
Also known as a track adjuster cylinder or track tensioner.
- High-pressure, single-acting hydraulic cylinder for the track tensioning system of a mining excavator manufacturer in Germany; 400 bar working pressure.
- The customer’s requirement, a 500 bar leak test held for 5 minutes, was carried out on the test bench we designed, and was met.
- Weld zones were inspected by a third party using magnetic particle and ultrasonic testing.
- An outside laboratory counted the particles in a sample of the final wash water by size.
- According to the customer’s verbal report, all of the cylinders completed a 1.5-year field trial at a mine site without problems.
Under a non-disclosure agreement, we cannot share the customer’s name, the machine model or the part drawings.
Gallery
Our capabilities
Automated welding cell
Designed and built by Minos, with automation developed at Minos that keeps the Fronius welding power source and the motion of the circumferential tube weld in sync.
500 bar pressure test bench
Designed and built by Minos, with PLC automation and software developed at Minos. It uses a purchased hydraulic test unit that reaches 500 bar, a special hydraulic oil chosen so it does not foam at that pressure, digital gauges that measure pressure loss and an inline oil particle counter.
Washing and cleanliness check
We wash parts with passivation fluids to keep them from rusting. On the case-study cylinder, to keep metal debris from damaging the seals under high pressure, a sample of the final wash water was sent to an outside laboratory, which counted the particles by size. Assembly started only after this count had confirmed the parts were clean.
Outside operations, one contact
Raw material is bought in, and heat treatment, hard chrome plating, rod grinding and polishing, non-destructive testing, abrasive blasting and painting are done by suppliers. Minos plans and follows up on all of them, so Minos is your only contact.
Machining and measurement
We machine parts to drawing on our CNC machines, check dimensions with calibrated instruments and provide a measurement report on request.
Who does what
At Minos
- CNC machining
- Welding in the automated welding cell we designed
- Washing with passivation fluids
- Assembly and sealing (with customer-specified seals)
- Pressure testing on the test bench we designed
- Design, build and automation of the welding cell and test bench; test bench software
Outside operations managed by Minos
- Steel raw material, sourced from abroad
- Heat treatment
- Hard chrome plating, rod grinding and polishing
- Non-destructive testing of weld zones (magnetic particle + ultrasonic)
- Laboratory particle analysis of the final wash water
- Abrasive blasting and painting