Hydraulic Cylinders, Jacks & Repairs

Cylinder choice starts with the space and the load.

Where clearance is tight, very low height pancake cylinders, low height pad cylinders and low height cylinders put serious force into gaps that standard rams cannot enter. Multi-purpose cylinders carry the general work, hollow piston cylinders pull and tension as readily as they push, and failsafe lock ring cylinders hold a load mechanically for the operations where hydraulic pressure alone is not trusted with it.

At the heavy end, high tonnage cylinders take on the structural moves and bridge work, aluminium cylinders bring the force to jobs the crew must carry in, and load return and pull cylinders cover the specialist duties between. At SWL, we supply them as pump and cylinder sets and as complete systems with the components, hoses and pressure gauges the installation needs, specified to the job rather than sold from habit.

Jacks are chosen by where the load sits and how it must move.

Toe jacks lift from almost floor level, taking machinery and plant from the ground when nothing else can reach beneath it, and machine lift jacks and plain ram lifting jacks carry the positioning work of installations and moves. Lightweight aluminium jacks give crews serious capacity they can actually carry to the job.

Trolley jacks, including high lift and long reach patterns, and bottle jacks cover the workshop and vehicle side, and everything is powered by pumps and powerpacks matched to the duty. Whatever the jack, the same rule holds: rated capacity, lift height, and base conditions determine the specification, and we help you get all three right before the load is on it.

Hydraulic equipment fails the way seals do, gradually and then suddenly, and a cylinder drifting under load has been asking for a service for months by the time anyone notices.

Our routine and preventative maintenance programmes catch seal wear, contamination and pressure loss while they are consumable problems rather than failures, keeping cylinders, jacks and powerpacks working at their rated performance.

Where equipment has already failed, our workshop repairs hydraulic rams and cylinders, pumps and powerpacks, machining, resealing and rebuilding rather than defaulting to replacement. Repaired equipment is tested before it returns, because a rebuilt cylinder proves its capacity here, not on your load.

Given hydraulic equipment is work equipment, the maintenance record also serves your duties under PUWER, and where hydraulics lift, testing runs alongside our proof load testing service.

A hydraulic cylinder’s rating is a claim until it is tested.

At SWL, we test cylinders, jacks, and systems under controlled load with calibrated measurements, proving capacity after repair, before critical lifts, and wherever a rating is in doubt, with certification issued for the result.

For the jobs where buying makes no sense, a one-off machinery move, a project needing high tonnage for a fortnight, our hydraulic rental service supplies cylinders, jacks, pumps and powerpacks fully inspected and certified ready for use, with the specification advice included so the hired kit is as right for the job as anything you would buy.