Guide Rings and Guide Strips
Non-metallic bearing elements that centre the piston in the tube and the rod in the gland. They carry the side load so that metal never touches metal and the seals stay concentric in their grooves. SES holds the range as an authorised SKF distributor, covering forms Pre-cut rings and coil strip cut on site; materials Filled PTFE, fabric-reinforced phenolic, POM, polyamide; load capacity Material dependent; phenolic carries the highest specific load; temperature Up to about +120 °C for most guide materials. Executions include filled PTFE guide rings, phenolic fabric guide strip, POM guide rings, wear-resistant strip for heavy side load, among others. It is specified most often into long-stroke press and extruder cylinders and boom and dipper rams under heavy side loading. Every part is genuine SKF through official channels, with designation, specification and options confirmed against your duty before it ships — supplied from Kolkata and our branch network, with breakdown cover that does not sit in an inbox.
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From integrated steel plants to power utilities and EPC majors — the works that cannot afford a counterfeit part specify through SES.
Function
Carry side load, prevent metal-to-metal contact
Forms
Cut rings and continuous strip cut to length
Materials
Filled PTFE, phenolic fabric, POM, PA
Effect
Keeps seals centred and extrusion gaps even
Where it runs.
You will find Guide Rings and Guide Strips in the parts of a plant where this particular duty actually occurs. In practice that means long-stroke press and extruder cylinders, boom and dipper rams under heavy side loading, crane and hoist cylinders with linkage loads, and equally steering and tipping cylinders on mobile plant, test rigs and servo cylinders needing tight alignment, water hydraulic and fire-resistant fluid circuits. What links them is the duty rather than the machine name — function: Carry side load, prevent metal-to-metal contact. If your installation is not on that list it matters less than you would think: the operating condition decides the specification. Send us the load, the speed, the running temperature and the environment it runs in, and we will match it to the right execution in the SKF range and confirm what is in stock.
Specify it against the duty.
Specification here follows the operating condition, not the catalogue. Side load is high and the stroke is long — Fabric-reinforced phenolic strip, which carries a far higher specific load than filled PTFE and does not cold flow under it. The cylinder starts and stops frequently under load — Filled PTFE, for its low breakaway friction. Phenolic guides in a slow-cycling servo application make positioning jerky. Bore or rod is worn and the clearance has opened up — Guides cut to the measured clearance, not the drawing figure. Fitting nominal guides in a worn bore leaves the piston free to tip and nip the seal. Where two of those apply at once, specify for the harsher of the two — under-specifying is what puts the part back on the bench a month later. Send us the duty and we will confirm the execution.
Ordering this from SES.
Leave the specified butt gap when cutting strip to length, and cut it at an angle rather than square. A closed joint has nowhere to expand when the oil warms up and the guide will buckle out of its groove.