December 2018 Association Watch

Registration open for NFPA Annual Conference in Laguna Beach

Pool view at the Montage Laguna Beach in Laguna Beach, Calif.

Registration is now open for the National Fluid Power Association’s 2019 Annual Conference at the Montage Laguna Beach in Laguna Beach, Calif., March 5-7.

This year’s conference features an expanded general session for more diverse topics including:

• Fred Harburg of the Kellogg School of Management will use his expertise in executive coaching and growth guidance to help attendees identify ways to maximize their leadership impact through authenticity.

• Barry Lawrence of Texas A&M University will provide insights to increase attendees’ understanding of profitability in distribution.

• Jeremy Drury, vice president of IoT Diagnostics, will bring attendees up to speed on the Internet of Things in fluid power as well as what to consider when developing a strategy for implementation.

• Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan will go in-depth into the current state of global geopolitics, specifically as it relates to free trade, and how it affects businesses.

• Register for the conference at www.nfpa.com before January 1, 2019 to lock in an early bird registration rate.

Register for the conference before January 1, 2019 to lock in an early bird registration rate.

New IoT committee begins resource development

Members of NFPA’s new Internet of Things Committee recently began

scoping out activities to help NFPA bring information about IoT and fluid power to members.

The committee agreed on two initial projects moving forward:

• An email-based survey of members to benchmark the current state of IoT activity within the fluid power industry.

• An IoT Resource Portal for NFPA members. IoT Committee members are gathering materials.

• Committee members are also helping to recruit additional IoT service providers into NFPA membership as a way of bringing more knowledge and resources on IoT to the fluid power industry.

15 universities to compete in 2019 Vehicle Challenge

The 2018-19 NFPA Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge is off to an exciting start. Coinciding with their senior capstone design courses, fifteen universities have registered to compete in this year’s program.

In the first semester of the Vehicle Challenge, teams gain knowledge in fluid power components, circuits, and systems, and their use in controlling force and motion. They are introduced to the industry judges and mentors, order components from the parts suppliers, and begin planning for the Design and Specification Midway Review.

University teams include:

• California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo

• Cleveland State University

• Colorado State University

• Iowa State University

• Kennesaw State University

• Montana State University Murray State University

• Purdue Northwest

• Purdue University

• University of Akron

• University of Cincinnati

• University of Denver

• University of Utah

• West Virginia University Inst. of Tech.

• Western Michigan University

NFPA | nfpa.com

Coinciding with their senior capstone design courses, fifteen universities have registered to compete in this year’s program. NFPA says this year’s Challenge is already off to a great start.

NFPA University Education Committee helps move workforce strategy forward

In the last year, the University Education Committee has started defining what “teaching fluid power” means. The committee, consisting of university professors and NFPA members, came up with a list of nine core competencies:

1. Understand fluid power benefits and limitations.

2. Conceptual and theoretical understanding of fluid power laws and principles.

3. Understand fluid power components and circuits.

4. Understand machine level requirements and translate into fluid power system requirements.

5. Can apply design, simulation and analysis tools to fluid power components and systems.

6. Can appropriately size components in fluid power systems.

7. Can integrate sensing and electronic control functions with fluid power components and systems.

8. Hands-on experience with fluid power components and systems. (Lab experience)

9. Can inspect, analyze and develop corrective action for product failure.

Since that time, NFPA staff has been collecting educational resources that their academic education partners are using to teach these competencies. The end product is the new Fluid Power Curricula, now available on the NFPA website.