How do I calculate the carbon footprint of a hydraulic cylinder?

Weigh the steel barrel, piston rod, end caps and seals per cylinder and multiply by supplier figures. Add honing, machining, chrome plating and assembly energy, then divide the plant's energy by cylinders made.

Material

• Honed steel tube for the barrel.
• Chrome-plated steel piston rod.
• End caps, seals and fittings.

Process

• Cutting, honing and machining.
• Welding of ports and mounts.
• Assembly, pressure testing and painting.

Per unit

Report per cylinder by bore, stroke and weight. If rods are chrome plated in-house, count the plating line's energy as well.

Worked example: plant energy per unit (one month)

• Electricity: 60,000 kWh x 0.710 = 42,600 kg CO2
• LPG: 1,000 kg x 2.98 = 2,980 kg CO2
• Cylinders made: 3,000
• Plant total: 45,580 / 3,000 = 15.2 kg CO2 per unit
• Add steel tube, rod and seals for the full figure

Inputs are illustrative; use your own bills and production records.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.

• Product carbon footprint calculator
• Electroplating footprint
• CNC machined part footprint
• Steel industry

Sources: GHG Protocol Product Standard, ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org), IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 21.0

Last reviewed 2026-10-21.