March/April | 2019 http://www.design-engineering.com40 FluidPower:Roundtable
increase for R&D investment in electric
vehicle integration to hydraulics. People
are looking to get away from diesel power
in these market segments and into using
cleaner alternatives. That trend really took
hold in 2018. That presents opportunities
and challenges for a company like ours
in the sense of helping our customers
facilitate battery management with
hydraulic control. Our success last year,
however, was driven by core motion con-
trol products enhanced by IIoT concepts
that people now understand help optimize
produc t iv it y.Pirri-Flodraulic: The biggest trend we
see is a demand for more system integra-
tion. Our customers are looking for a
complete package. We’re finding that, as
our customers’ employees retire, they are
having a harder time filling those posi-
tions and so they depend more on com-
panies like ours. Even those who were
more independent are now increasingly
leaning on us for support. In part, it may
be that the technology is evolving at a
quicker pace, especially now that elec-
tronics in fluid power has come on so
strong. Currently, Flodraulic has 12
in-house programmers to accommodate
the demand.Chin-MP Filtri: Modern hydraulic com-
ponents are being built to much tighter
tolerances to improve efficiency and
performance, which is creating a strong
demand for hydraulic filters and oil con-
tamination monitoring products. Hydrau-
lic components gain efficiency and
performance by reducing internal toler-
ances. Without clean oil, it’s not possible
to reliably reduce internal tolerances. By
monitoring contamination, it’s possibleto identify problem areas well in advanced
of a costly contamination related failure.What do you feel are the major chal-
lenges facing the industry presently?McCrudden-Festo: One challenge facing
the industry is that the upfront cost of
electrical motion is dropping. As it stands
now, building with pneumatics makes for
a less expensive machine for the end user,
in the same way a fuel-burning car is less
expensive than a Tesla. But, as the cost of
electrics decreases, there’s no question
pneumatic motion will be converted to
electrical to take advantage of its inherent
advantages. On the other side of the coin,
the degree of automation on any piece of
equipment is going up quickly as well and
therefore the market size is growing. So
if the rate of automation is growing faster
than the rate at which electrics is eroding
pneumatics, then it’s still growing.Tourgis-Wainbee: The major challenge is
what’s referred to as the talent drought.
The industry is busy right now, so I think
most would say that finding good talent is
tough. But that’s too easy an answer. Really,
I think the fluid power world hasn’t done
a good enough job promoting itself as
leading edge and an industry one can build
a career around. So convincing those with
talent (and everyone has a talent) that their
potential is best served in the fluid power
industry is the real challenge.Pirri-Flodraulic: One of the biggest
challenges still is finding qualified people.
Unfortunately, fluid power is not a rec-
ognized industry by the general public.
Very few middle school or secondary
school students know it’s a career pathoption. I myself only stumbled into it by
chance when high school teacher of mine
suggested it. I think that there is a huge
perception problem. People don’t seem to
realize fluid power contributes to their
everyday lives. Through the Canadian
Fluid Power Association, we are aiming
to change this lack of awareness. One way
is by encouraging students to participate
in our annual Fluid Power Challenges,
with the hope this exposure will encourag
them to choose a career in fluid power.Chin-MP Filtri: The hydraulic industry
in particular is constantly being chal-
lenged by new technologies that didn’t
exist or weren’t competitive in the past,
such as variable frequency drives. VFD
motors, when used on hydraulic power
units, are great for improving the overall
efficiency of the hydraulic unit. However,
when VFDs are combined with mechan-
ical drives/gear boxes, they can offer a
complete alternative to hydraulic systems
that was not possible in the past.How might Industry 4.0/IIoT impact
fluid power in the future?McCrudden-Festo: It’s hard to say. IIoT/
Industry 4.0 comes down to capturing big
data, electronically. For Festo, which has
pioneered the marriage between pneumat-
ics and electrics, the impact will be large.
We already have the electronics in our
pneumatic components to take big data
from. With that, you can monitor param-
eters like changes in air consumption and
other metrics that maintenance staff can
use to pinpoint when and where a machine
needs overhaul. For companies that don’t
have that technology built-in are stuck. For
them, Industry 4.0 will have little impact.The biggest trend we’re seeing is a demand for more system
integration in that our customers are looking for a complete
package...We are finding that, as our customers’ employees
retire, they are having a harder time filling those positions
and so they depend more on companies like ours.- Frank Pirri, Sales and Product Manager, Flodraulic
Group Canada
DES_MARCHAPRIL2019_LAZ.indd 40 2019-04-10 1:56 PM