A Road Map for Fluid Power

ITG: When looking at the Roadmap Committee’s ranking of the eight Customer Drivers, autonomous operation and greater integration of technology are two areas that were given relatively low importance. Based on the emphasis on IoT in so many markets, is this surprising to you?

EL: The eight drivers cited are the eight most important things that fluid power customers are trying to deliver to their own customers – the buyers of their machines. And while IoT is clearly making dramatic in-roads into the marketplace, the pre-eminent concerns remain the needs for machines to deliver increased availability and uptime, increased productivity and performance, and lower capital and operating costs.

I think it is interesting to note that IoT, while obviously a technology that can facilitate autonomous operation and the greater integration of technologies, can also be applied to the more “bread and butter” concerns of uptime, performance, and cost.

It is similar to what we heard discussed in many of our road mapping sessions – the Internet of Things is not a customer driver in and of itself. IoT is a technological strategy for addressing the needs expressed by many of the Customer Drivers.

ITG: The Roadmap also provides a gap analysis that compares the importance of Customer Drivers and fluid power’s ability to meet the need expressed by that driver. Weight reduction and increased power density is the one area where fluid power’s ability to meet the need exceeds the importance to customer markets. Why do you feel that’s the case?

EL: Power density has traditionally been one of fluid power’s strongest attributes. Compared to other technology options, the power-to-weight ratio that hydraulics and pneumatics offer is unmatched. I think the gap analysis in the Roadmap reflects this strength. Especially in the mobile equipment markets, fluid power currently provides more than enough power density to meet the needs of those customers.

ITG: Based on the analysis, where do you believe the greatest unmet needs are? Who is addressing them? What innovations do you expect to see as a result?

EL: The largest gaps between Customer Drivers and fluid power’s current ability to meet them were in relation to the autonomous operation of and the integration of technologies on the customer’s machines. To address these gaps, the Roadmap recommends improvements to fluid power control systems and to fluid power’s ability to monitor, gather, and use data from its own systems in ways that add value for our customers.

Since the most recent Roadmap was published, in August 2019, NFPA has been focused on highlighting the latest innovations in these spaces at a series of regional conferences and through its new Fluid Power Forum podcast.

Several presentations and episodes have already focused on the use of IoT technologies in fluid power systems – from real time condition monitoring to adaptive control environments. Others have and will be focusing on innovative control systems in real fluid power applications, especially in the realm of automating hydraulic functions on mobile machines. Over the next few years I believe we will see some remarkable advancements in these areas.

ITG: One of the main Capability Improvements highlighted in the plan was to Improve fluid power control systems (including through electrification). What makes improving this capability achievable, and how does it help customers?

EL: Electrification is often described as a major disruptor in the fluid power industry, but it really depends on what you mean by “electrification.” Industrial hydraulic systems have always been “electrified” in the sense that it is an electric motor that generally serves as the prime mover in those systems. The new trend, driven mostly by environmental concerns, has to do with “electrifying” mobile machines – which either means replacing the internal combustion engine with an electric motor for the machine’s propulsion while keeping hydraulics for its actuated work functions, or replacing both the internal combustion engine and the hydraulic system for entirely electro-mechanical solutions.

The Capability Improvement in question incorporates the research and development needs associated with this and other changing environments. Most notably, it focuses on the development of novel control architectures and algorithms that will allow hydraulics to flourish in this evolving hybridization of technologies on mobile machines. Some of these new control systems can likely be imported or adapted from best practices in industrial hydraulic applications, but some will need to be created for the unique demands and realities of the mobile environment.

In terms of serving the needs of customers, successfully hybridizing hydraulic work functions with electric propulsion on mobile machines can give those customers the best of both worlds – lowering the environmental impact while maintaining the needed power density that hydraulics offers.

ITG: How do you anticipate the next NFPA Roadmap will differ from this current version?

EL: It is extremely difficult to predict the future, but one area we would like to improve upon is to include even more customers in the road mapping process. Those who participated in developing the current Roadmap were pivotal in creating a document with a lot of utility, both for them, and for their fluid power suppliers. Because fluid power
serves such a diverse customer market base, we would like to include an even greater diversity of customers in future Roadmaps. Our process is open to all who are interested in  participating.