Headed for Extinction?

Is the fluid power industry in decline?

That's an emphatic YES! I have had thirty years in the industry and I know without a shadow of a doubt that industry will do ANYTHING to remove hydraulics from the workplace!

The reasons are simple. Hydraulics are noisy, messy, heavy and expensive! They should only be used when there are no other reasonable option such as mobile plant machinery of any description where the inefficiency's can be tolerated!

I remember saying to a colleague twenty five years ago that we needed to make hydraulic control much smarter to compete with 3ph control. This has happened but at extreme cost in proportional control systems.

3ph control has, to a degree, also removed the need for hydraulics with such tasks as clamping as inverter controls can drive 3ph motors connected to screw jacks at ZERO Hz thus clamping machinery. OK, you need a big cooling fan but the system works out much cheaper than engaging a hydraulics company to fit an alternate system.

I could, and probably should, go on but I will let others add on from here:-

Many plastic injection machines require the clamping of a very complex die, which limits the available space for each clamp, there are no room for long screws or any other type of mechanical transmision or leverage capable of delivering Tons of pressure. Only the good old cylinder accomplishes these tasks, just to mention one application that has come to stay.

Yes we know that the hyd. units are bulky, but they can be located off the machine, and normally their maintenance is carried out by specialized techs.

Yahlasit

Hey!

Innovation and expertise is the key.

Fluid power - has its own applications. The point is to make it relevant and acceptable. Industry can not do without it.

May be you are bogged down by the current drop in demand.

It is a passing phase. Stay around.

good answer, and the types of smaller control valves used.

Things are improving.....

A good engineer to design these circuit are an assetm but hard to come by.

Fluid Power is such a BS term. Who would guess it could mean Hydraulic, Pneumatic, Electric/Electronic and Vacuum power and control?

Is the manufacturing headed for extinction? Is machinery headed for extinction? Is automation headed for extinction? Is electrical power headed for extinction?

We have seen a temporary shift of manufacturing in the USA and other primary countries to the second, third and fourth world countries probably due to cheap labor and lack of regulations.

Have you seen a modern production line that fills and packages 2 Ink Jet Cartridges per second (Yes 2 per second)? The machine gets no coffee break, vacation, sick days, health benefits etc. and will not sue it's employer.

The cheap labor situation is temporary. Reverting to manpower cannot be a realistic answer unless a few surviving individuals go back to caves.

As the world wide recession ends and the demand for goods and services continues to grow the key is automation. Automation requires electric, hydraulic, pneumatic, vacuum, electronic power and controls.

Paint your wagon!

About 30 years ago a did a stint of a couple of years in pneumatics, and learned a lot from it. All of my colleagues were amazed that I transferred from a new technology (electronics) to an old one. The fact is that fluid power will change but it will continue.

In my zone, leisure marine, the use of hydraulics is increasing. Electrical furlers are made for headsails but the foredeck of a yacht is not a comfortable environment for a geared motor assembly with several tons of axial load on it. I could cite a dozen different situations where the ruggedness of hydraulics beats direct electrics hands down.

Regards

Chas