Help with protecting cylinder rods

[corvairbob]

i'm a machine repairman and the machines i repair are robotic welding machine. one of the problems we are having is weld slag/expulsion getting caught in the area the cylinder rod moves between the mount and the rod. i tell the engineer to make the hole larger to allow the slag to fall out he says make it smaller to prevent the slag from entering. i tell him to locate some type of bellows to shield the rods. can anyone help me out here. make the holes larger / smaller or where may i look for bellows the can withstand the weld slag and keep that area clean? thanks for any ideas. bob p.

 

[Pkruse]

Hydraulic cylinders where a major problem in my last job. After redesigning and repairing thousands of them over 25 years, I've come to the conclusion that only about 5% of all the engineers who design cylinders know how to do that correctly. Or else they do understand, but their design objective is to cause them to fail shortly after the warranty expires.

I’ve bought many bellows from a hydraulic repair shop that did most of our work. They come in different flavors, some of them heat resistant. Call up one of the larger shops in your area and put the question to them. Failing that, Google is a good backup plan.