Offshore wind turbine equipment corrodes way faster than onshore—over 3 times, per the 2025 IEA report. The culprit? Salt spray and constant humidity. Hydraulic cylinders in tower lifting platforms and access doors are always exposed to this harsh environment—air with up to 3.5% salt. After a while, the cylinders start to pit and rust. Seals get old and lose their stretch, too, which leads to oil leaks, jamming, or even total breakdown. For example, North Sea wind farms in Europe spend 100,000 to 150,000 RMB per tower each year on maintenance. Over 40% of that money goes just to replacing hydraulic cylinders. In North America’s Great Lakes, cylinder failures cause more than 70 hours of downtime annually. With electricity at 0.3 USD per kWh, that’s over 200,000 USD in lost revenue for each tower.
HCIC uses two steps to keep corrosion away: nano-graphene composite coating plus thermal spraying. This combo meets IEC 61400-24 C5-M Class, the standard for offshore wind corrosion protection. Tests with ISO 9227 salt spray show the coating stays intact for 5,000 hours—way more than the 3,000-hour requirement. It sticks to the cylinder super well (Grade 0 adhesion) and lasts 8-10 years in salt spray. That’s three times longer than traditional epoxy-coated cylinders.
HCIC’s seal design is unique: double lips plus a dust ring. Seals are made from German FKM fluoroelastomer, which fits API 6A standards. Even in -40°C cold, the seal doesn’t deform much (compression set ≤15%). At 80°C heat, it keeps 80% of its strength. Leakage is always below 0.1 ml/min—way lower than the 0.5 ml/min international limit. So oil leaks almost never happen.
Lifting platforms in towers start and stop a lot. HCIC’s double-acting multi-stage cylinders are perfect for that. They have built-in precision sensors, so stroke accuracy is within ±0.5mm. The cylinder barrel is made of 27SiMn high-strength steel. After treatment, it has a yield strength of ≥800MPa and can handle up to 2000kN of thrust—meeting IEC 61400-1 wind turbine load rules. Another plus: it retracts to 1/3 of its extended height. That means it fits 80m to 150m towers without changing the platform structure—saving time and money on installation.
HCIC hydraulic cylinders passed IECRE reliability tests. If you use them 8 hours a day, you only need to maintain them once a year. That’s twice as long as traditional cylinders. When maintenance is due, you just change the seals—no need to take the whole cylinder apart. That cuts maintenance time from 4 hours to 1.5 hours per cylinder. So you save 50% on labor costs over time.
This wind farm is in the central North Sea, where humidity is 85% and salt spray hits 3.8mg/m³. They needed equipment that meets IEC 61400-24 C5-M Class. In March 2024, they put HCIC double-acting multi-stage cylinders on 20 tower lifting platforms. By December 2025, every cylinder was still working great—no corrosion, no leaky seals. The operation and maintenance supervisor said: “HCIC cylinders surprised us with their corrosion resistance. We cut maintenance costs by 40%—from 120,000 RMB to 72,000 RMB per tower. And we haven’t had any downtime from cylinder problems. That’s a big boost for our power generation efficiency.”
This farm has crazy temperature swings: -30°C in winter, 35°C in summer. Hydraulic cylinders here need to handle extreme cold and heat. In June 2024, they replaced old cylinders with HCIC anti-corrosion ones. After more than a year, the HCIC cylinders still run smoothly. No hard seals, no oil leaks—even in the worst temps. The wind farm manager said: “Since we switched to HCIC, lifting platform downtime dropped from 72 hours to 20 hours a year. That saves us about 180,000 USD per tower in lost power revenue. And our maintenance team doesn’t have to work as hard—win-win.”
HCIC cylinders meet all key international standards: IEC 61400-24, API 6A, and IEC 61400-1. English test reports and certifications are ready to go. That means you can use them for wind power project bids in North America, Europe, and other regions—no extra local certification needed.
HCIC has a dedicated design team for hydraulic cylinders. Just tell them your tower height, lifting platform load (5 tons to 20 tons), and operating environment (temp, humidity, salt spray). They’ll make a double-acting multi-stage cylinder that’s perfect for your needs.
Compared to European local brands, HCIC anti-corrosion hydraulic cylinders are 20-30% cheaper. They also come with a 1-year warranty. If you have any problems—corrosion, oil leakage, seal failure—HCIC will replace parts or the whole cylinder for free. They even offer overseas on-site technical support, so you don’t have to worry about after-sales issues.
HCIC is a professional hydraulic manufacturer, mainly engaged in hydraulic system design, manufacture, installation, transformation, commissioning and hydraulic components brand sales and technical services.We hope that our product can help to save your cost and improve your quality. For More details please email us "davidsong@mail.huachen.cc" or google search "HCIC hydraulic"
