Hydraulic Cylinder Position Sensor

In the past, heavy duty, long stroke hydraulic cylinder manufacturers were forced to forgo accurate, robust hydraulic cylinder position measurement on the largest, most powerful hydraulic systems: you know, the place where it’s needed most?

Since these systems are typically operating outdoors, under extremely high pressure, vibration, and temperatures, existing technologies like magnetostrictive sensors have too many inherent operational weaknesses to be feasible in many of these applications. Instead, CPI created something new by utilizing the best of both draw wire and LVDT technologies. The CPI position sensor is capable of managing long stroke lengths, even telescoping hydraulic cylinders, under extremely high pressure and vibration, while almost doubling the operating temperature range of many existing hydraulic cylinder position sensor technologies.

Features of the CPI SL Series Hydraulic Cylinder Position Sensor

No more extensive fabrication headaches or gun drilling of the piston for mounting.
No need to stock various sensor lengths, one size fits most or all.
No end-of-stroke dead zones that are prevalent with other sensors
LVDT based design is highly immune to EMI and sealed against environmental contamination.
Extremely shock and vibration resistant
Mounts easily outside or inside any hydraulic cylinder. Can be mounted on the oil or the gas side.

CPI’s Hydraulic Cylinder Position Sensors install into standard hydraulic cylinders with minimal modifications and are suitable for field retrofit where rod-type sensors have failed. The cable connector installs into the piston or rod via a 7/16”-20 threaded connector, and the sensor is coupled to the cylinder via a hydraulic hose through a #8 SAE port. (Click image for larger view).

Hydraulic Cylinder Position Sensor Installation Is a Snap.

Hydraulic cylinder position sensors from CPI eliminate the need for a hollow cylinder rod and allow for precision position sensing electronics in a single actuator. They are superb for end-of-stroke detection on both hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders. These features make CPI’s hydraulic cylinder position sensors ideal for use with material handling, food processing, packaging, transportation and many other demanding applications.

These reliable sensors are extremely shock and vibration resistant, so you you can count on them to function correctly in the field. Take a look at our Hydraulic Cylinder SL Installation video to get a better understanding of how our sensors work and just how easy they are to retrofit into an existing sensor.

CPI Hydraulic Position Sensor Product Categories

CPI’s Hydraulic Cylinder Position Sensors come in a number of basic variations depending on the primary cylinder interface and overall design requirements. In most cases basic sensor design is customized carefully to achieve the highest possible endurance for the operating environment.