HYDRAULICS 16 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS July/August 2026 www.hpmag.co.uk In many production environments, cleaning processes are run conservatively because cleanliness may be hard to verify. The result is frequent cleaning fluid changes, unnecessary downtime, and higher operating costs, all justified in the name of risk reduction. Hydraulic cylinder manufacturer Burnside Hydracyl worked with Dyne Testing, an Intertronics brand, to replace assumption with measurement in its cylinder washing process. By introducing quantitative cleanliness verification using the SITA Cleanospector, Burnside reduced washer servicing frequency, extended fluid life, and cut costs by around €7500 per washer per year, while maintaining product performance, quality levels, and operational safety. Burnside Hydracyl, of Ballymoon, Country Carlow, Ireland, has designed and manufactured hydraulic cylinders for sectors from agriculture to industrial maintenance for almost four decades. Hydraulic cylinders can use up to 400 bar of pressure. Cleanliness of components during manufacture is an essential safeguard for cylinder integrity and safety in use, as contamination can cause internal damage, leakage, and in severe cases structural failure under pressure. Quality Engineer JJ Ryan is responsible for maintaining and improving Burnside’s systems and processes in line with established standards. “The industry is moving forward in its expectations of cleanliness, but also of the quality framework and documentation around that cleanliness,” explained Ryan. Recent conversation with an important customer highlighted this and he saw an opportunity to reassess Burnside’s cleaning process. At the time, Burnside was replacing the washer fluid in its cylinder washing machines monthly. Ryan suspected this was over-cautious, but knew that contamination, even by microscopic fine particles, can damage the cylinders and cause serious issues during operation. “Pollution in hydraulic systems can lead to misalignment, blocked valves, and even uncontrolled failures caused by the Cleanliness measurement improves hydraulic cylinder manufacturing that were largely unquantified, without compromising quality or introducing additional process risk. By verifying cleanliness levels, Burnside would be able to make evidencebased decisions on washer fluid change frequency and gain full visibility of its washer maintenance strategy. Enquiries with industry partners pointed Burnside towards Intertronics and Dyne Testing. Understanding the industrial washing process Ryan contacted Dyne Sales Manager Alison Fox in early 2025, who first arranged cylinder surface cleanliness testing of different examples, from a series Burnside Hydracyl reduced washer maintenance, extended cleaning fluid life and improved production throughput by introducing quantitative cleanliness measurement into its hydraulic cylinder manufacturing process. H&P reports. pressure,” said Ryan. “These health and safety risks aren’t acceptable, so I wanted to keep the peace of mind that our cylinders were optimally clean while also reducing maintenance costs and eliminating disposal of usable washer fluid.” Burnside was spending around €1500 per international bulk container (IBC) of cleaning fluid. Across its fleet of washers, that added up to hundreds of thousands of euros each year. Managing Director Brendan Byrne asked Ryan to find a way to measure the cleanliness of cylinder components after washing, so the business could reduce waste and bring better control to a set of running costs
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