cylinder piston finish

I know my 8B BH is made by Amerequip which looks like they make all of Deere's SCUT and CUT BH from what I can tell. I spoke with the head design engineer 2 weeks ago about getting a drawing on my bucket for the 8B because I wanted to get a ripper made for it. He accomodated me with a partial drawing so that was very helpful. He told me that they will make probably around 50 to 75 8B backhoes per year still. When I look at the 485 and other BH's I can see that items like the buckets and also the pins are still the same. amerequip is constructing an update on their web site which is good since it did not give a whole lot of information before. www.amerequip.com

My understanding is that a different company out of Canada makes the FEL's for the JD SCUT's and CUT's.

I thought that the Chrome coating was better and that the black nitride finish was not as good. My thoughts were not based upon any knowledge. Just upon the fact that I grew up with the chrome finish and nothing else. Why is the black nitride finish better?

Rob

This is a snippet from an online source of info about black nitride cylinder coating:

"In a nutshell, black nitride hydraulic cylinder rods are better than the conventional hard chrome rods in the following ways:
*It is an eco-friendly procedure.
*It can hold oil better than the conventional rods which means a longer seal life.
*There is a proper dimensional uniformity.
*It offers better resistance against corrosion and wear and tear..
*Black nitride rods are dent proof without using induction hardening.
*These are flaking, pitting and micro cracking resistant."

My take:
The eco-friendly aspect has to do with chemicals used in plating- they can be extremely toxic/hazardous (I assume nitride is much less so than chrome plating)
I had wondered if black nitride might be an inferior (lower cost) coating, what with companies always trying to improve the bottom line- not so from what I've been able to find out. I've read it actually has a higher cost than chroming, but I have no specific info in this regard. It makes sense to me that the matte finish holds hydraulic fluid and has superior wear characteristics for gasket health.

Seems like if it were *really* a superior product- we'd see it on more cylinders. Or, I'd have seen something about it in the JD sales brochures!

I was first introduced to "nitride"coating when reading about the factory sponsored motocross dirt bike riding superstars ,years ago. These ,no expense spared, "factory works" bikes were all set up using the nitride finish on the front hydraulic fork tubes/suspension and rear shock....and a whole lot of titanium too.

its my understanding "nitriding" is a treatment to exisiting materials so it doesnt change its dimmensions ....chrome is a coating......i am a shooter and nitriding barrels are considered more accurate due to not adding material to the machinging.......chrome is what you will see in military rifles that can go full auto and take more abuse but are less accurate ..........i think both are good protectants ........and nitriding is a cheaper process .....no clue which would be better on a cylinder rod