The whole of static hydraulics. The same pressure on a bigger piston makes a bigger force: the lever built into every hydraulic machine.
Pressure on a confined fluid is transmitted undiminished to every point. Two connected pistons feel the same pressure; the areas decide how force splits.
A = π/4·d². Double the bore, quadruple the force at the same pressure.
The big piston moves less in exact proportion to the force gain. Work in equals work out, minus losses.
Force is pressure times area and speed is flow divided by area, so the area missing on the rod side costs force and hands back exactly that much speed. Pick the rod at bore ÷ √2 and the annulus is half the bore: the classic 2:1 cylinder, half the force back, double the speed, by design.
A 100 mm bore with a 50 mm rod expels about 53 L/min while the pump delivers 40, because the whole bore area empties at the speed the annulus end fills. The more slender the rod, the worse it gets. Size the return for the supply flow and the restriction builds back-pressure on the annulus face, subtracting directly from the force: the cylinder quietly gets weaker rather than obviously failing.
The critical load goes as 1/Le² and only as d⁴. Halving the effective length, which is what pinning both ends instead of leaving the rod end free does, quadruples the load the rod can carry for nothing; the same factor of four from the rod takes a √2 increase in diameter and a bigger gland, seal, cylinder and pump. And Euler is not always right: a short, fat rod yields first, at about π/4·d²·Sy, so both are computed and the smaller governs, with the panel naming which.
The fluid between them is incompressible, so whatever volume the input piston displaces appears on the output side instant for instant. Push at a steady speed and the output moves at its own steady, much slower, speed throughout.
1 bar ≈ 14.5 psi ≈ 0.1 MPa ≈ 100 kPa. Hydraulic systems often run 100–350 bar (roughly 1,500–5,000 psi). The tool converts as you switch units.
A circle's area is π/4·d². Double the bore and you quadruple the area — and the force. It's
why a small increase in cylinder diameter buys a big jump in capacity.
1 bar ≈ 14.5 psi ≈ 0.1 MPa ≈ 100 kPa. Hydraulic systems often run 100–350 bar (roughly 1,500–5,000 psi). The tool converts as you switch units.
Because the critical load goes as 1/Le² and only as d⁴. Halving the effective length — which is what pinning both ends instead of leaving the rod end free does — quadruples the load the rod can carry, and costs nothing. Getting the same factor of four out of the rod takes a √2 increase in diameter and a bigger gland, seal, cylinder and pump to go with it.
No, and this page will tell you when it is not. Euler describes elastic buckling and assumes the rod is slender enough to bow before the steel gives way. A short, fat rod yields first — it squashes at about π/4 d² Sy — and quoting the Euler load for it would promise a force the material cannot carry. Both are computed and the smaller governs, with the panel naming which.
No. The output piston moves less in exact proportion to the force gain, so the work (force × distance) is the same on both sides, minus real-world losses. Hydraulics trade distance for force, like any machine.
On a cylinder's retract stroke the rod takes up part of the piston, so the working area is the annulus — bore minus rod — and the force is smaller. The tool now computes both. With a 100 mm bore and a 50 mm rod the annulus is 75% of the bore, so retract gives 75% of the force and, for the same pump flow, 133% of the speed. Force × speed is the same either way: a cylinder trades one for the other exactly and never creates power.
Because the fluid connecting them is incompressible — whatever volume the input piston displaces has to appear on the output side, instant for instant, not just at the end. Push the input piston at a steady speed and the output piston is forced to move at its own steady (much slower) speed the entire time, which is exactly why the animation has them arrive together rather than the small piston "getting there first."
Releases in which this page changed, newest last. Derived from the archived copy of every release, not from notes written afterwards — so it reflects what actually shipped. Site-wide passes are left out; they are in the full changelog.