August 2020 Association Watch

2020 NFPA Robotics Challenge scholarship winner announced

Matthew Morley of Sunnyvale, Calif., is the winner of the 2020 NFPA Robotics Challenge Scholarship.

The National Fluid Power Association recently announced thatMatthew Morley of Sunnyvale, Calif., is the winner of the 2020 NFPA Robotics Challenge Scholarship. Despite several FIRST Robotics andNational Robotics League event cancellations this year, the scholarship program receive d87 applications from students who built their robots using pneumatics.

This scholarship program helps build awareness of fluid power benefits and careers among high school students. The scholarship awards $40,000 ($10,000 per year for four years) to a high school senior who participates in a FIRST Robotics or National Robotics League Competition Team and uses fluid power in the competition robot. The money awarded may be used to study engineering at any accredited technical college or university in the United States. Morley will be using the scholarship to pursue a degree at Northeastern University in Boston.

Morley already has a background in a number of engineering-related activities.

“I was born and raised in Sunnyvale, Calif. and graduated from Design Tech High School in Redwood City this June. Design Tech’s personalized curriculum and focus on design thinking gave me the opportunity to develop my passions and hobbies. In my spare time, I enjoy working with and fixing my homemade 3D printers, playing video games with friends, sailing on our high school varsity team, and contributing my knowledge of modern control theory to the open-source FIRST Robotics Competition robot code library.

“Participating in my school’s FIRST Robotics team, 5940 BREAD, opened my eyes to the possibilities of engineering. I joined the team in my freshman year when it was in just its second year and relished the open-ended, real-world engineering problems that we had to solve to succeed as I rose to Technical Captain my junior year. My participation in the team gave me an outlet for my engineering passions as I developed my mechanical design, fabrication, programming, and leadership skills.

“This fall, I’m excited to be studying mechanical engineering at Northeastern University. Northeastern is known for its strong co-op program, where undergraduate students participate in six-month industrysponsored co-ops. From my FIRST experience, I know that I love to dive into technically challenging engineering problems, learning what I have to in order to be successful along the way, and these co-ops are the perfect opportunity for me to do so.

“The honor of this scholarship award will help give me the financial means to pursue my education at Northeastern and help me focus my interests on the design challenges that can be found in the member companies of the NFPA.”

The NFPA judges who interviewed Matthew were impressed by his knowledge of pneumatics and his sincere interest in the experiences that they had in college. The judges were: Bob Hammond of Deltrol Fluid Products, Frank Langro of Festo, Bill Haley of FORCE America, Tom Peterson of HUSCO, Olia Mladenova of HYDAC, Travis Schmidt of HydraForce, Jim Kaas of Iowa Fluid Power, Bradlee Dittmer and Charles Werdehoff of IMI Precision, Tom Blansett of the International Fluid Power Society, Jeff McCarthy of SunSource and Andrew Kleitsch.

If you would like to be a judge for next year’s Robotics Challenge Scholarship applications, contact Lynn Beyer at lbeyer@ nfpa.com or (414) 778-3364.

ESA announces 2020 Scholarship winners

The Equipment Service Association (ESA) awarded three $2,000 scholarships through ESA’s Board of Directors call on June 25. Winners were picked at random, and all excitedly accepted.

“ESA is proud of all the applicants who met the criteria and would like to extend best wishes to all who submitted as they further their education. It’s a great pleasure to provide education and educational opportunity to ESA members, and their families,” said Rick Lindemann, President of ESA and Dakota Fluid Power. “We thank our generous supporters and are very excited to announce the 2020 winners.”

The Equipment Service Association Scholarships Foundation began in 1994 and has awarded over $50,000 in scholarships. The 501(c)3 charitable foundation is 100% donation-supported, and all applicants must meet certain criteria to be eligible. ESA is pleased to announce that the 2020 scholarship winners are Sami Hoffman, Bret Malone, and Erin Johnson.

“I am going into my senior year of studying Motorsports Engineering at IUPUI. I could not be more grateful to receive the 2020 ESA Scholarship. This is an early and great start to the final year of my degree. This scholarship will help me push through my final year and achieve my goals post-graduation of working in the highperformance automotive industry. I would also like to add that I could not do it without the support of my family and all their hard work to give me the opportunities to succeed. I am so grateful to receive this scholarship and look forward to the year ahead,” wrote Bret Malone.

“I graduated this spring from St. Francis High School in Minnesota. While in High School, I was a member of the National Honors Society. I competed in Choir and Show Choir and was on the yearbook committee. I also have done various volunteer work through church and in the community. I will be attending North Dakota State University this fall pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree majoring in Radiology. I want to thank you, the Equipment Service Association, and the Scholarship Committee for the opportunity to apply and ultimately receive a scholarship this year. What a wonderful surprise! This will help with financial challenges for my freshman year of college,” submitted Erin Johnson.

“Thank you very much for this opportunity. This scholarship will help me as I go into my freshman year at the University of Cincinnati to study Pre-Physical Therapy. I have danced competitively since I was two years old doing all styles of dance. I have also completed high school with high honors for three years and graduated in the top 20% of my class at Oak Hills High School,” emailed Samantha Hoffman.

“Helping to support the education of a member furthers our goal of surrounding ourselves with smart, experienced leaders,” said ESA Executive Director Amy Luckado. “We look forward to continuing this tradition for many years to come. The Equipment Service Association has great members and a community dedicated to service.”

To learn more about ESA’s Scholarship Fund and how you can apply to be a potential candidate, offer a donation to continue the support of education in the industry or to learn more about The Equipment Service Association, visit www.2esa.org.

Full agenda for upcoming NFPA/FPIC Regional Conference now available

September 2020 Virtual NFPA/FPIC Regional Conference

September 3 | 8:00 AM – 11:30 AM (Central Time)

A full agenda for the September 3 NFPA/FPIC Regional Conference on contamination and its effects on fluid power systems is now available. The conference, which will take place online via Zoom, will feature the following presentations:

Varnish: The Forgotten Contaminant | Mark Barnes, Ph.D. CMRP, Senior Vice President Global Business Development, Des-Case Corporation

Fluid Conditioning Tools to Improve Hydraulic System Performance | Bhavbhuti Pandya, Group Product Manager, Hydraulic and Lube Filters, HYDAC Technologies and Kristine Mikulan, Group Product Manager, Filter Systems, HYDAC Technologies

Dynamic Filter Testing Reveals Need for More Robust Filter Elements | Jeffrey Mothersbaugh, Applications Engineer – Filtration, Bekaert Corporation

All NFPA members can attend the conference for free, but nonmembers will be invoiced for $100 after registering. Registration for the event closes September 1. Visit nfpa.com for more details.

IFPS announces 2020 Fluid Power Hall of Fame Inductees

A special award was established to acknowledge individuals who have dedicated their careers and have made significant contributions to Fluid Power technology. This year’s host, theInternational Fluid Power Society (IFPS), is excited to announce the 2020 Class of Inductees.

Those inducted to the Fluid Power Hall of Fame are George Beniek, Henry (Bud) Haver, Alan Hitchcox, Peter Nachtwey, and John G. Slater.

“The Fluid Power Hall of Fame recognizes the lifelong contributions of individuals whose innovative ideas, entrepreneurial spirit, and hard work have significantly contributed to the continuing success of the fluid power industry,” said Rance Herren, CFPSD, CFPECS, CFPAI, CFPMT, Hall of Fame Committee Chair. “The inductees for the 2020 Class were selected from a slate of outstanding candidates and I am, along with the selection committee, truly thrilled to honor these visionary and influential leaders.”

George Beniek

To say George Beniek has participated in the widest, most unusual fluid power applications for his over 60 years in the industry is an understatement. From being the first employee of 1961’s brand new Char-Lynn Test Lab, to hydraulically controlling and rotating a 24-foot theater stage, to coordinating the combined development efforts of the University of Minnesota with Eaton Corp. to create an energy-efficient fluid power-operated Plymouth Valore, Beniek has certainly traversed beyond the normal breadth of the field. He holds the patent for improving the performance of Eaton’s Low-Speed-High-Torque Hydraulic Motor. An army veteran of Korea, Beniek serves the Chanhassen American Legion Post Honor Guard and volunteers on its annual Fishing For Life summer veteran-family outings on Lake Minnetonka. But perhaps the accomplishment of which he is most proud of is his role as co-founder and overseer of the Minneapolis-St. Paul IFPS Chapter 5’s Past President’s Scholarship Fund. This one-year, full scholarship, awarded to a second-year fluid power student at one of four Minnesota colleges, has been given annually for 20 years and accounts thus far for cumulative awards totaling nearly $100,000.

Bud Haver

Winner of 2019’s “Coolest Thing Made in Michigan” Award, Henry (Bud) Haver culminates his 25-year tenure with Peninsular Cylinder of Roseville, Mich. as its President of seven years. Peninsular’s custom booster cylinder won the second annual “Coolest” Award, sponsored by the Michigan Manufacturers Association, from a field of 10 extremely diverse contest finalists of “Michigan Things.” He is largely responsible for Peninsular Cylinder’s expansion over the past three decades as well as its solid internal training program. Haver, with 42 years in fluid power, earned Certified Fluid Power Specialist Certification in 1994, and subsequently earned Certified Solid Works Associate. He recently joined the NFPA’s Cylinder Standards Committee. He has served on Macomb Community College’s Business Advisory Council, contributed to the publication Basic Hydraulics – Component and Circuit Design, Operation, & Analysis, and authored numerous fluid power periodical articles. Haver also directed development of Peninsular’s strong engineering and manufacturing team and led the company’s development and implementation of an ISO-9001:2015 quality system.

Alan Hitchcox

After 33 years as author and editor at Hydraulics & Pneumatics magazine, Alan Hitchcox noted “the most indelible aspect of my career: all the great people I’ve met and with whom I’ve worked.” His leadership at the periodical has promoted fluid power in industry and advanced the cause of hydraulic and pneumatic power transmission and emerging technologies across a broad range of industries. Hitchcox has served as the committee chair for NFPA’s Electronic Sensors Committee and edited NFPA’s Recommended Practices for both pressure and lineardisplacement transducers. Not content with merely “industry” impact, he edited and appeared in Episode 15, Season 10 “Hydraulics” of the popular television program Modern Marvels. Having started his career in publishing as assistant editor for Power Transmission Design magazine in 1981, Hitchcox also organized technical seminars on fluid power technology and presented technical papers at IFPE. He notably quoted, “I did not seek a career in fluid power. Rather, after I fell into it, I developed a passion for learning as much as I could and have always found the wide variety of applications astounding.”

Peter Nachtwey

In a class by himself, Peter Nachtwey has well over 35 years laserfocused on the application of microelectronics to control theory, particularly in its application to fluid power industrial machinery. With Bachelor’s Degrees in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering, Nachtwey began working with controls theory by writing software to synchronize wood-carrying, hydraulically powered conveyors, as well as servo-hydraulic controls to be utilized by sawmill OEMs. In 1985, he joined the fledgling Delta Computer Systems and began developing hydraulic servo controllers for programmable logic controllers (PLC’s). Nachtwey became president of Delta in 1992 and has continued to be the nationally recognized, leading proponent and expert on advanced control algorithms and simulation programs to enable less cumbersome methods for testing and developing machinery. He has made numerous presentations at technical conferences worldwide, including at IFPE, NFPA, and FPDA. He has published technical papers for metals industries, food processing, dam control systems, forest products, complex testing systems, and press applications — to name but a few. In his own words, Nachtway said, “My main contribution has been in control theory for hydraulic systems and making automation using hydraulics simpler, more precise, faster and cheaper.”

John Slater

Retired from an illustrious career in fluid power engineering, which began in WWII as a naval Seabee, John G. (Jack) Slater has earned credentials as both a Wisconsin Professional Engineer and an IFPS Certified Fluid Power Engineer. Jack attained his Ph.D. in Fluid Flow from the University of Wisconsin and presented his doctoral thesis, “Energy Loss in Liquid Flow in Straight Pipes under High Pressure” to the 1953 American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) Meeting in Minneapolis. Of his thesis and presentation, Jack noted that “2,000 psi was high pressure at that time.” Since then, Slater has been employed both in industry and academia, having worked for A.O. Smith, Industrial Hydraulics Company, and Broome Inc. all in Wisconsin, before moving on to a successful 27-year tenure at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). At MSOE, he began as Program Director for Fluid Power Engineering Technology Degrees and subsequently became the Chairman of MSOE’s Mechanical Engineering Department. Slater won the Karl O. Werwath Distinguished Research Award in 1983 for the design and installation of hydraulics to move a sailboat’s keel to the right or left to facilitate tacking.

Nominations were open January 1 – April 15, to any individual, living or deceased, who demonstrated excellence within their 25-plus year fluid power career. A six-member selection committee, from diverse segments of the industry, chose these inductees based on their contributions to the fluid power industry using a subjective and objective evaluation system.

IFPS | ifps.org