Attracting youth is key
Many industry leaders fear fluid power’s reputation as a dirty, noisy technology may deter young students from pursuing a career in the field. Getting students involved at a younger age is crucial to keeping the industry alive and well and making the United States a leader.

Tom Nash, hydraulic product manager for Applied Industrial Technologies, Cleveland, points out that the current dynamic in the industry has remained unchanged in many years. “I look at the age of the general population in our industry and know if we as an industry do not do something now, we will have an extreme shortage of qualified people in the work force,” he says.

The NFPA is working to overcome the challenges associated with educating future engineers for the fluid power industry. Erik Lanke, executive director of the NFPA, says the organization sees the industry as falling into three primary camps—lack of interest among students, lack of capacity at educational institutions, and lack of appropriate connection between graduating engineers and industry.

“A program like the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) is designed to address all three of these needs. In its short existence, we have seen the CCEFP dramatically increase the fluid power training capacity for its participating universities, which is, in turn, beginning to lead to increased interest among students,” Lanke points out. “The next challenge to tackle is to connect the CCEFP graduates with the industry eager for their talents and skills. The CCEFP’s internship program is working to bridge that gap, but additional efforts will be necessary. It will require industry to step up and make sure the opportunities it has to offer are known and clearly understood by the graduates.”

This is seen in programs like “Project Lead the Way,” which incorporates fluid power into the curriculum, says Kim Stelson, director of the CCEF and co-lab director at the University of Minnesota. “In middle schools and high schools, it’s important to have people aware of this,” Stelson says. “One of the huge motivators for students to go into a technical field is the FIRST robotics competition. Fluid power is used in many of these."

Stelson also says that with younger children and minorities, it is critical to first interest them in science and then introduce fluid power. “In our education and outreach programs at the center, there is not much fluid power in the younger ones but mainly it’s about getting them active and excited about technology,” he says.

Stelson said the University of Minnesota also pioneered other programs to get minorities in the mix as well, working with young women and Native American students as well.

John R. Groot, who is retired from fluid power distributor Knotts Co., and is also active in the International Fluid Power Society and the Fluid Power Educational Foundation, and who pioneered IFPS’ pneumatic specialist certification, agrees that attracting students through programs like FIRST is critical to the industry.

“I would like to see young kids in the mix earlier. We are hard-pressed to interest them in college training,” Groot says. He is currently working with the FIRST Robotics competition, coming up with demonstrations for teachers to show what fluid power components can be used in their robots and how.

Programs like the FIRST Robotic competition, AEM Construction Challenge, and others like them that are geared towards middle school and high school students hope to overcome this negative perception and get youth excited about science, technology, and hopefully, fluid power in the end.

Fluid power companies go back to school

In recent months, there has been much discussion of the importance of educating future engineers in fluid power in the United States. That’s why it’s no surprise more fluid power companies are becoming involved with colleges and universities, such as the recent creation of facilities for such studies by Bosch Rexroth Corp., Hoffman Estates, Ill., and Festo Corp., Hauppauge, N.Y.

Down south, Bosch Rexroth joined with Texas A and M University in College Station, Texas to create the Bosch Rexroth-R.C. Womack Fluid Power Laboratory. The lab, which was created in conjunction with Womack Machine Supply, is a newly renovated, state-of-the-art facility with eight new fluid power trainers including pneumatic and industrial hydraulic systems from Bosch Rexroth. It was proposed by Texas A and M to Womack and Bosch Rexroth in April of 2006 and its mission is to educate students using the newest technology in hydraulics, pneumatics, and advanced control methods. Its secondary mission is to attract industry sponsored projects and to provide professional training or continuing education to engineers, distributors, and managerial professionals working in the fluid power market place.

“This laboratory models the integrated engineering business environment where multiple technologies converge to solve customers’ problems,” said Dr. Walter W. Buchanan, head of the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A and M.
The lab will be divided into three areas: lecture space, hydraulics, and pneumatics. The hydraulics and pneumatics areas will be equipped with latest Bosch Rexroth fluid power technology including the use of computers, simulation software, and data acquisition systems to guide the learning experience.

Courses taught in the lab will relate to both the Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution (ET/ID) curriculums and will encompass both ET and ID students who are studying fluid power technology. The main courses to be taught will be Fluid Power Technology and Fluid Mechanics. The emphasis will be on basic hydraulics and pneumatics as well as electrohydraulics and pneumatics.

The ET/IT Programs at Texas A and M University have 600 students and serve distributors and manufacturers from maintenance, repair, and operations channels, and channels serving construction, high tech distribution and manufacturing.

“This lab is a powerful teaching tool that provides our students with hands-on experience to better prepare them for industry applications,” added Dr. Barry Lawrence, laboratory director and program director of industrial distribution.

Festo’s move highlights interdisciplinary engineering, with the creation of the Advanced Mechatronics Training Center, developed in partnership with Suffolk County Community College, Brentwood, New York. It features advanced, high-tech manufacturing and process control equipment, to create greater awareness among students, school systems, industry leaders, workforce development agencies, economic development agencies, and government officials about the variety of career paths that exist in the manufacturing field.

Festo’s involvement reflects the move in the industry towards advanced technical education. In order to keep a competitive edge, manufacturing companies are upgrading their automation equipment to increase productivity and enable the production of high quality products. The automated equipment that is used today requires technicians with a new set of technical skills to operate and maintain them.

The US Department of Labor estimates that more than 10 million skilled factory jobs will be unfilled by the year 2020. It is essential that high-tech, specialized training be made available to students and to the current workforce.

As part of this mission to provide affordable higher education and workforce development opportunities, SCCC applied for and received a three-year $2.4 million federal grant through the United States Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration to train workers for advanced manufacturing with its new Mechatronics curriculum.

More than 200 workers from more than 38 manufacturing companies have enrolled in the college’s mechatronics certificate program since last spring. The college also plans to offer an associate degree program in the field next fall.

For information, visit www.boschrexroth-us.com or contact the Learning System Division of Festo at (631) 404-3182.

Members of the Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power visit Purdue University's lab, where they are working to develop new system concepts based on throttle-less actuator technology to demonstrate fuel savings and the improvement in performance and compactness for the large sector of construction, agricultural and forestry machinery. The excavator will also be used to demonstrate effective control strategies for complex multi actuator systems and robot like machine functions. This will include new human/machine interfaces, including those that provide haptics feedback.

Native American students from the reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota work on their FIRST Robotics competition entry. The team was sponsored by the University of Minnesota.

One of the fluid power labs at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Students at Georgia Tech work on a fluid power project.

Finally, read the below op-ed piece from AEM on the need to educate and attract skilled young people to the construction industry, one of many industries that use fluid power on a daily basis.

Opportunity awaits as nation rebuilds its infrastructure

By GLEN E. TELLOCK and LYNNE WOODWORTH

Crumbling bridges, overcrowded roadways, aging water and wastewater systems diminish our quality of life. The national focus has been on the need to invest public funds into these projects - both as a solution to our infrastructure woes and also as a stimulus to boost the sagging economy.

But the hidden problem of this infrastructure crisis is the lack of skilled workers we will need to solve all these problems.

The current construction workforce is getting older and looking forward to retirement. At the same time, demand is growing for skilled labor, creative engineers and trusted safety inspectors. The construction industry expects to create 1 million new jobs over the next five years, and young people, their teachers and their families need to know more about this opportunity.

A new generation of workers is needed to help lead the building and repair of our nation's roads, bridges, schools and more. The machines that make us productive need qualified, educated people to design, manufacture, operate and repair them.

In January, the construction industry launched a student competition - the Construction Challenge. This event is not just about blue ribbons but focuses on introducing young people to challenging careers and connecting them with potential employers. The Construction Challenge aims to share that information, reward students and educate the public about the growing demand for skilled workers in the construction industry.

The Construction Challenge finale was last week during one of the world's largest trade shows, CONEXPO-CON/AGG. More than 50 teams competed for scholarships and prizes and the chance to learn new skills and network with leaders from the industry.

Whether they are building schools and skyscrapers, repairing thousands of miles of roads, constructing bridges, or manufacturing the equipment that makes all of this work happen, those working in the construction industry form the basic structures that allow our country - and the world - to work and thrive every day.

The Construction Challenge introduced students to the variety of career paths in the construction industry from manufacturing to in-the-field opportunities. For example, there is a growing demand for trained workers in the trades, such as equipment operators and machinists. These jobs require highly skilled people, some of whom may have to earn at least a two-year technical school degree. Another path is for college graduates looking for such managerial and professional jobs as industrial engineers, safety inspectors, IT managers and even sales professionals. Whatever the path, they all lead to rewarding, good-paying job opportunities for the next generation.

Our national face lift will keep the country moving ahead, create a million new jobs and will require highly skilled individuals to choose careers in the construction industry.

Glen E. Tellock is chief executive of Manitowoc Co. and board chairman of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.

(The full sourcing AEM sent to the paper, but which it did not print, was “Glen E. Tellock is president and CEO, Manitowoc Company and board chair of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), the international trade and business development resource for companies that manufacture equipment, products and services used worldwide in the construction, agricultural, mining, forestry and utility fields. Lynne Woodworth is president and CEO of Stone Construction Equipment and the vice chair of construction for AEM.”)

Read more thoughts from Eaton Hydraulics Operations’ Dennis Szulczewski:


Eaton Hydraulics Operations’ Dennis Szulczewski completed his one-year term as chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board of the Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power(CCEFP) in 2007. Here follows a question-and-answer interview with Szulczewski, who has moved from chairman of the advisory board to a two-year term on the board’s executive committee.

The inevitable first question: Will you please describe what CCEFP is?

It’s a research organization, a consortium, actually, with the goal of creating new, compact and efficient fluid power technology.
The complete name is Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power, a rather long title. The CCEFP Engineering Research Center is funded by the National Science Foundation. You can’t have a more prestigious, more powerful organization as a sponsor than the National Science Foundation.

The National Science Foundation has funded the CCEFP with $15 million over a 5-year period. The fluid power industry competed with about 100 other industries to win the science foundation’s support for the Engineering Research Center status. If our CCEFP demonstrates to the National Science Foundation that we’ve made good progress, we’ll be in line for further funding over the following 5 years. Thereafter we’d be expected to be a self-sustaining organization.

Is National Science Foundation the sole sponsor?

No, the member companies also provide funding. As do the member universities that are participating. The companies are chipping in $3 million and so are the universities over the first 5-year period. The core universities are the University of Minnesota, right in Eaton’s backyard, Purdue University, University of Illinois, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Vanderbilt University.

The Milwaukee School of Engineering, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the National Fluid Power Association, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and Project Lead The Way are ‘outreach’ partners. Project Lead the Way is a non-profit organization that promotes pre-engineering courses for middle and high school students.

Did you accomplish in the first year what you wanted to?

Yes, the first year was an excellent success. Eaton certainly played a big role in the CCEFP’s initial progress, but the support of the entire industry has been overwhelming. We started with about 50 member companies and we now have 63.

What sorts of projects and research will ERC be doing?

It’s an impressive list. Among them: Addressing industry problems with noise-vibration-harshness, leakage, and contamination; creating new industries in medical and rehab applications, rescue operations, underwater exploration, and remote operation of machinery in hazardous environments; use of composites and functionally-graded materials; and phase change energy storage concepts
New fluid power approaches developed at ERC are being demonstrated on six test “beds.” These are an excavator, an injection molding machine, a small Urban Vehicle (sUV), a compact rescue crawler, fluid power assisted hand-tools, and fluid-power-assisted orthoses and prostheses.

The excavator is located at Purdue; the injection molding machine, sUV and fluid-power-assisted hand-tools are at the University of Minnesota; the compact rescue crawler is a joint project between Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt; and the fluid power assisted orthoses and prostheses are at Illinois.

Final question . . . looking down the road . . . how do you think the fluid power ERC will have an impact on the future of the fluid power industry?

From the beginning of my term on the Industrial Advisory Board I saw the promise of this initiative. After a year of significant involvement, I know it’s more than a “promise.” It’s well on its way.

The fluid power industry is a mature one. It has lost some of its luster over the years. Too many of the best and brightest engineering students have chosen to go into other disciplines because they haven’t seen fluid power as “high tech” enough. The fluid power ERC will have the long term effect of attracting highly qualified students and researchers; it will totally invigorate our industry, over time.

Dennis Szulczewski is engineering manager for Advanced Technologies for Eaton’s Hydraulics Operations.

Eaton’s Hydraulics Operations Garners Praise
from Fluid Power Research Organization

Eden Prairie, Minn. -- The industrial liaison director for the Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) today praised diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corporation as providing a “benchmark for industry involvement.”

CCEFP industrial liaison director Mike Gust said that during the research center’s first year, Dennis Szulczewski, Eaton’s engineering manager for Advanced Technology, served as chairman of the CCEFP’s Industrial Advisory Board. “As the CCEFP’s first chairman, Dennis set the tone and direction for the organization, worked on policies and procedures, and served in an advisory capacity for researchers at the University of Minnesota.”

The Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power was formed in 2006 with a grant of $15 million from the National Science Foundation and $3 million each from participating companies and universities.

The CCEFP is home-based at the University of Minnesota; other member universities are Purdue, Illinois, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt.
The Milwaukee School of Engineering, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the National Fluid Power Association, the Science Museum of Minnesota, and Project Lead The Way are ‘outreach’ partners.

“Eaton has been a benchmark for industry involvement and a leader for the Minnesota center,” Gust said. “Eaton is one of the core industry companies responsible for getting the CCEFP off to a good start, and Dennis provided leadership and inspiration for our industrial members.”

Gust said that the fluid power ERC started with 50 members in 2006; it now has 63.

CCEFPP initiated projects on six “test beds” during Szulczewski’s term as chairman. These are an excavator, a plastics injection molding machine, a small Urban Vehicle (sUV), a compact rescue crawler, fluid power assisted hand-tools, and fluid-power-assisted orthoses and prostheses.

For more information, visit www.hydraulics.eaton.com.
In the photo, Eaton engineering manager for Advanced Technology Dennis Szulczewski, right, and University of Minnesota fluid power ERC director Kim Stelson, center, look on as the hydraulic system on a small Urban Vehicle in UM’s engineering laboratory is tested. Eaton supported work on the sUV with the grant of a hydraulic pump, valves, hoses, fittings, and tubes.