Railroad Wheel Lift Cylinder Manufacturer

Every cylinder undergoes 100% pressure testing before delivery.
MOQ starts from 1 piece, the lead time is 7 to 15 days.
We will provide quotations and technical support based on your drawings or working condition information.

Brands We Serve in Hydraulic Industry

Railroad Wheel Lift Cylinder

Railway wheel lifting cylinders are heavy-duty hydraulic cylinders. They use hydraulic pressure to produce a huge lifting force. In railway vehicle maintenance or derailment rescue, they lift the wheel-set to help replace wheels, service the bogie, or put a derailed vehicle back on the track. It is widely used in railway maintenance, rescue and rail vehicle manufacturing.

The cylinder barrel is usually made of 27SiMn high-strength steel. Its tensile strength Rm is ≥980 MPa. It has strong impact resistance, so the barrel won’t crack easily when lifting heavy rail vehicles. The piston rod uses 45# steel with hard chrome plating. The coating thickness is 20–50μm. It can resist wear and corrosion, reduces seal wear and extends cylinder service life. We can customize the materials of cylinder parts according to your requirements.

We use an internal bore honing process to keep the cylinder surface roughness at Ra0.2–0.4 μm. This can reduce friction and lower internal leakage. We can build hydraulic cylinders to your drawings.

Your Reliable Supplier of Railroad Wheel Lift Cylinder

We have many years of experience manufacturing railway wheel lift cylinders. We have worked with railway maintenance equipment and wheel drop stations. One customer was using a standard cylinder. The stroke was long enough, but the cylinder base had a small contact area. If the ground was uneven, it was easy to create off-center load and damage the cylinder. To solve this problem, we widened the base. The wider base provides a larger support area even on uneven ground. The cylinder is less likely to bear load on one side, which reduces side load.

We can customize cylinders based on your equipment’s load tonnage, stroke, and working pressure. Every cylinder passes quality inspection before delivery to reduce losses caused by equipment downtime.

Railway Wheel Lifting Cylinder Types

Underfloor Wheel Lathe Wheel Lifting Cylinder

Underfloor wheel lathe wheel lifting cylinder is a type of railway vehicle lifting cylinder. During operation, the train stays on its original track. There is no need to remove the wheel set from the bogie. The cylinder lifts one wheel set to raise the wheels off the rail, and then the lathe cuts and smooths the worn wheel tread.

Wheel Set Bearing Jacking Cylinder

Wheel set bearing jacking cylinder is a type of railway vehicle lifting cylinder. This kind of cylinder is made specifically for mounting and removing wheel-set bearings. It lifts and levels the whole wheel-set, to carry out press fitting. The cylinder must withstand loads and lateral forces during operation, so it requires high structural strength.

Single-Acting Plunger Lifting Cylinder

Single-acting plunger lifting cylinders are another type of railway vehicle lifting cylinder. Hydraulic pressure pushes the piston rod out to lift the work-piece. When the pressure is released, it drops back by its own weight. This cylinder has a simple structure and is easy to maintain. It fits simple lifting tasks and short-time support conditions.

Mechanically Self-Locking Cylinder

Mechanically locked lifting cylinders are a type of railway wheel lifting cylinder. After hydraulic power lifts the vehicle body, a mechanical structure locks the position. The load will not drop even if the hydraulic system fails. This is different from a single-acting plunger lifting cylinder, which has no locking protection. They are designed for long-time maintenance work.

Railway Wheel Lifting Cylinder Features

High Eccentric Load Resistance

The railway wheel lifting cylinder has excellent resistance to offset loads. Its cylinder barrel is made of a thickened high-strength seamless steel tube, with a wall thickness greater than that of standard cylinders. It also uses a large-diameter piston rod. This improves the cylinder’s structural strength, resists lateral impact force during operation, and prevents damage to the piston rod.

Powerful Lifting Force

The railway wheel lifting cylinder can produce a huge lifting force. It can easily lift a whole vehicle or a heavy wheel-set, so it can handle different heavy-load conditions. For normal lifting, the force is 10 to 30 tons. In heavy-load jobs like railway emergency rescue, it can reach more than 100 tons.

Specialized Mounting and Structural Design

Railway wheel lifting cylinders have a dedicated mounting structure. They cannot simply use the same mounting method as a regular cylinder. Its connections are custom-made to match the equipment frame. There are three main mounting types: flange fixing, hinged connection and telescopic sleeve, to fit different working conditions.

Railroad Wheel Lift Cylinder

Applications of Railroad Wheel Lift Cylinder

Wheel-set Replacement

Railway wheel lifting cylinders are used in wheel-set replacement equipment. The cylinder is installed in the pit. When it retracts, the vehicle can drive straight into the station. Once the vehicle is in place, the cylinder extends and pushes the lifting seat up, smoothly raising the vehicle body. This takes the full vehicle weight off the wheel-set for unloading. The cylinder has dust seals to keep out dust and other particles, so the piston rod and seals won’t get scratched.

Bogie Lifting

Wheel lifting hydraulic cylinders are used in bogie lifting equipment. Lifting a bogie requires several cylinders working together. These cylinders extend at the same time to support the bottom of the bogie and raise it to the maintenance height. After maintenance, the cylinders retract together to lower the bogie. The cylinder has a built-in mechanical locking device, so it won’t suddenly drop during maintenance. This keeps workers safe.

Wheel Drop Pit Operation

Wheel lifting cylinders are used in wheel drop pit equipment. When the piston rod is fully retracted, the top of the lifting seat sits below the pit floor, so the wheel set can enter smoothly. When the cylinder extends, the lifting head rises to support the whee-set and lift it off the track for wheel replacement. The cylinder has a compact design, making it easy to install in narrow wheel drop pits.

Derailment Recovery

Wheel lifting hydraulic cylinders are used in derailment recovery. The cylinder is installed under the wheel-set. The piston rod extends and lifts the wheel-set up to track level. A recovery tool is then used to move the lifted wheel set into the correct position. After that, the piston rod retracts and lowers the wheel-set back onto the track to finish the reset work.The cylinder can lift the vehicle quickly for wheel-set recovery, cutting down track occupancy time.

Metro Maintenance

Railway wheel lifting cylinders are used in subway maintenance. The cylinder is installed under the bogie lifting point. When it extends, it lifts the bogie so workers can go under for maintenance. When retracted, it lower the bogie back onto the track. The seals usually use moisture-resistant HNBR, which can work well in damp underground environments.

Port Railway Maintenance

Railway wheel lifting cylinders are used in port railway maintenance equipment. When the piston rod retracts, the vehicle can move into the working station. As the piston rod extends, it supports the wheel set and lifts the vehicle. Then a hydraulic lock holds the position so workers can inspect and repair it. The piston rod has thick hard chrome plating, 20–50 μm thick, to improve corrosion resistance.

Cylinder Incompatibility with Existing Drop-Pit Dimensions

The hole spacing and mounting surface height of a wheel drop pit are fixed and can’t be changed. The cylinder size and base are also fixed. So the cylinder may not fit into an existing wheel drop pit. If you force it in, it can cause side load, seal wear and even damage the cylinder.

We will install an adapter mounting base at the bottom of the pit. It works like a transition bridge. Based on key factors like load and rigidity, we make holes on the top and bottom of the base. The holes on the bottom line up with the embedded bolt holes in the pit floor, and the base is bolted to the embedded plate. The top has another set of mounting holes to secure the bottom of the cylinder. This does not require modifying the original wheel drop pit. It keeps the cylinder mounted vertically and prevents side load.

Low-Speed Wheel set Fine Adjustment will Cause Impact

During low-speed fine adjustment of the wheel-set, jerking can easily happen. The reason is that the static friction of the cylinder seals and seal parts is higher than the dynamic friction. When starting at low speed, oil pressure needs to rise gradually to overcome static friction. Once the static friction is overcome, the friction resistance drops suddenly, and the piston rod moves suddenly and fast. This creates impact, leading to incorrect wheel set positioning and damage to the wheel seat.

We use a low-friction seal combination with PTFE Glyd rings. This material has low friction, and its static and dynamic friction values are very close.This reduces the difference between static and dynamic friction at startup. We also precision-hone the cylinder barrel and keep the bore roughness at Ra 0.2–0.4 μm. This creates a smooth surface that reduces friction and prevents low-speed jerking.