Progress along the Technology Roadmap

The National Fluid Power Assn. (NFPA) aims to advance the fluid power industry and the companies within it through industry events, learning resources and research projects.

In 2009, the NFPA gathered a team of representatives from member companies and the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) to put together the Technology Roadmap for the Fluid Power Industry. The goal was to outline a research and development agenda that would allow the fluid power industry to help meet the future needs of fluid power customers, expand fluid power into new customer markets and attract young engineers to the industry.

The six main research and development (R&D) challenges faced by the fluid power industry (which can be found at www.nfpa.com), as determined by the Roadmap team are:

• 1. Increasing the energy efficiency of fluid power components and systems
• 2. Improving the reliability of fluid power components and systems; for example, increasing uptime, eliminating leaks, reducing maintenance requirements and making fluid power safe and easy to use
• 3. Reducing the size of fluid power components and systems, while maintaining or increasing their overall power output
• 4. Building “smart” fluid power components and systems; for example, components that can perform self-diagnostics/prognostics and troubleshooting to be able to integrate easily with “plug and play” functionality, etc.
• 5. Reducing the environmental impact of fluid power components and systems such as noise and fluid leaks
• 6. Improving and applying the energy storage, recovery and redeployment capabilities of fluid power components and systems

According to the NFPA, only part of the action plan is to be led by the NFPA itself. The full achievement of the association’s goals will be, in large part thanks to the involvement of individual member companies incorporating the Roadmap objectives into their own product innovations and strategies.

Jeff Herrin, director of advanced programs at Sauer-Danfoss, Ames, IA, states, “the Roadmap is a very high level set of prioritized directives in the industry because it’s from the consolidated voice of industry partners. The topical areas were identified as critical for the industry as a whole, so many of them are already on manufacturers’ radar.” What the list does assist manufacturers with is prioritization of their own projects.

According to Herrin, Sauer-Danfoss had all of the Roadmap challenges on its radar, but found it challenging to prioritize the drivers. “The Roadmap helped us prioritize in terms of where our investment flow should be for R&D,” he says. “We’ve had a lot of investment and focus on energy efficiency. As a provider of both components and system solutions, we’re addressing it from both sides, looking at the core fundamental technology pieces like pumps, motors and valves, but also looking at configuring system solutions out of those components and bringing software and electronics to them to create more efficient solutions. We are striving to offer pre-configured hardware/software solutions that can help our customers as they become more challenged with the energy efficiency of their vehicles.”

HUSCO Intl., Waukesha, WI, also had members on the Roadmap development team, and saw parallels with its own internal project goals and the NFPA’s Roadmap.

Joe Pfaff, HUSCO’s VP of corporate development engineering, says the first thing to do when addressing the R&D challenges is to determine how today’s solutions are not satisfying customer’s needs. Next is to link what key characteristics or features are needed to address those needs, and then to gain the fundamental knowledge on how to create the innovation and new products to solve the market’s technical challenges.

Effects of emissions regulations

“When you think about the increasing engine emissions regulations, the increased cost of fuel, the increased use of off-highway equipment in developing countries and the high cost of fuel in those developing countries, that is creating a huge market demand and need to improve efficiency,” says Pfaff.