In recent years, fluid power has lost a lot of its allure as an industry that could attract talented young graduates to fields like mechanical engineering.

Many potential fluid power engineers who, in the past, might have been attracted to the industry, instead focus on other areas of science-related study—computers, especially. Trying to design the next million-selling computer game can sound more appealing than working on a leak-proof fluid power generator, for example.

This lack of interest, among other factors, has caused some to view fluid power as more of a past-present industry—and not the future-looking industry that can easily attract talented people to manufacturing and distribution firms along with the financial backing for research.

With this in mind, the Minneapolis-based Center for Compact & Efficient Fluid Power was established in 2006. It has been making strides toward beefing up fluid power's image as a career target and enabling fluid power researchers to develop new, potentially profitable, technologies.

The CCEFP—or “the center,” as its members and supporters refer to it—is an engineering resource center (ERC) funded primarily by grants from the National Science Foundation and participating member companies, including Hydraquip, John Deere, Rexroth and Sun Hydraulics

Seven colleges are also affiliates: Georgia Tech; the University of Illinois; the University of Minnesota; the Milwaukee School of Engineering; North Carolina A & T; Purdue University and Vanderbilt University.

Kim Stelson is the director of the CCEFP, as well as a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota. Stelson admits that over the years fluid power gradually became a neglected area in the United States in terms of education and research.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, he explains, U.S. universities were leaders in fluid power research. During that era, Stelson says, the field was dominated by fluid power applications such as those found in the aerospace industry, among others. Unfortunately, the fluid power industry—and its research funding—changed in the late 1960s/early '70s, he explains.

“[Aerospace] research died out in the 1970s as people moved in different directions in terms of research,” he says. “And some universities, including M.I.T., even shut down their fluid power labs around this time.”

By contrast, countries in Europe and Asia were intensifying their fluid power research. A gap soon emerged between them and the U.S.

“They were ramping up in a big way,” Stelson says, “[mostly] in industrial and agricultural.”

Even today, he adds, England, Germany and Sweden are home to the three largest fluid power labs in Europe. All were started around 1970. They are not alone, Stelson says.

“Today there are 30 to 40 major fluid power research efforts in Europe,” he says, adding that there are similar centers in Asia.

“What is probably the largest fluid power research effort in the world is in China,” Stelson says. “So other parts of the world have recognized the importance of this. But in the U.S., industry was having a hard time finding engineers who have any background in this area.”

Though frustrated at the decline in fluid power interest, Stelson is philosophical about the reasons. For one thing, he cites the age of many fluid power experts of the 1950s and '60s, many of whom started their own companies but reached retirement age in the late '60s.

“That group, which became active after World War II, had retired. Also, we were more interested in things like energy concerns in the '70s,” he says. “So there were different directions [for fluid power]. [It was] a natural cycle. It wasn't due to any political pressure. But what had been in fashion was no longer in fashion.”

Over the years, companies also began cutting back on their research budgets, in some cases eliminating their research departments entirely. This was especially common in fluid power-related work, Stelson explains.

“Many major corporations in the U.S. used to have large research and development operations,” he explains. “But in an effort to save costs, many of the R & D operations had been downsized or eliminated.”

R & D people used to have their own grapevine with their peers at various universities, Stelson recalls. That line of communication soon faded, he says.

“You would think that because [companies] had fewer people active in research, there would then be more opportunity for universities to collaborate with companies,” Stelson says. “But what really happened was there was much less contact between [them]. So rather than having more activity, you actually got less.”

Against this backdrop, the National Fluid Power Assn. inaugurated its Educator Industry Summits, designed to connect academia and companies active in fluid power product lines. At the first summit, in 2001, they decided to take the idea one step further.

“That's where we laid the groundwork for industry-university cooperation,” Stelson says.

Groundwork is one thing, but following through to completion of what was an exhaustive application process is another. The NSF does not simply grant permission to be an ERC to the first 25 entries.

The application process is very competitive and getting the center established was no routine procedure, explains Larry Goode, president of RT Dygert International, a distributor of fluid-power related products, and a member of the CCEFP's industrial advisory board.

“To get an ERC established for your industry is akin to winning the Nobel or becoming a prime contractor for NASA,” Goode says. “It's very impressive, but involves a lengthy and detailed vetting process.”

As part of the application and evaluation process, Goode explains, the National Science Foundation looked very closely at the technical merits of the research the proposed center would be conducting. They also focused on the amount of industry support the center would receive. An energy research center is funded partly by federal grants and partly by industry donations.

That was a key factor in the NSF's final determination, Goode explains.

“How willing were industry members to contribute to the center?” Goode says. “NFPA has some very proactive membership that stepped up to the plate.”

Eric Lanke, executive director of the NFPA, adds that “while the lion's share of the funding comes from the NSF, a not-insignificant amount of money comes from more than 50 [NFPA] members who are financial supporters of the center.”

The combination of academia and private industry working cooperatively toward the development of fluid power innovations and related research was at the heart of the NSF's approving the ERC application.

“One of the goals of the center—and this is a dictate from NSF—is to perform research that can translate into actual products in the marketplace over a short period of time,” Lanke explains. “Close alignment with industry is critical to ensure that the breakthroughs being sought are in line with market viability.”

The fluid power-related research being done by the center's affiliates is sophisticated and very technical—phrases like “displacement-controlled actuators,” “biomimetric nanosurface” and inventions including hybrid vehicles and rescue robots are commonly discussed. But as Goode explains, it is all being done with an eye to the future—as much as five to 10 years from now.

“The philosophy is that the stuff that's three-to-five years [from the market] is already underway within the industry itself. So this is the future and not necessarily stuff that will be current in the next year or so,” Goode says.

Goode praises the quality of research and credentials of the people involved, “the cream of the cream,” as he calls them, in terms of engineers and professors.

“It's not just saying they'll design stuff for commercialization,” he explains. “They're using it to provide internships and careers for the undergraduate and graduate students at these universities. They are trying to do outreach programs to bring others more into the science and technology fields.”

Expanding undergraduate awareness of what fluid power is—both technologically and career-wise—is also an important goal of the CCEFP. Goode reiterates the concern of many in the industry that few Americans are going into technology fields outside of computer sciences.

“We're having trouble in our industry getting people to go into basic mechanical engineering and into fluid power. So were trying to look at a multi-generational approach and saying that we have to start getting the youngsters, six and seven years-old, interested in fluid power, getting it implanted in their brains that it might be a career path in 20 years.”

With that next generation in mind, the CCEFP has recently had a fluid power exhibit on display at the Minnesota Museum of Science, Stelson explains. The exhibit highlights a hydraulic hybrid vehicle simulator and has proven popular with the younger visitors, scoring high on the kids' “awesome” meter. There is hope of taking that exhibit to other science museums across the country, with backing from corporate sponsors.

“Science museums network with each other and we're optimistic that through the museum grapevine, this exhibit or similar ones will be viewed elsewhere,” Stelson says.

Further outreach will include a just-completed documentary of fluid power that the PBS affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul will air in April. That documentary will be made available to other public television stations nationwide. Stelson and CCEFP officials are hopeful many of those stations will air the film.

In May, the CCEFP will hold its annual meeting in Milwaukee—a major event on its calendar. One highlight, Stelson explains, will be students from the center's universities presenting updates and live presentations related to their current research projects.

“In three days there's enough time for each project to give a 15-minute presentation. That's our really open, public event. We have major industry participation,” Stelson explains. “Our interest will be in getting more companies to know about our work, and if it's a good match, to have them join our center.”

The Milwaukee meeting will also enable the center to exercise its job placement services, which they hope will include a resume bank later this year. Companies attending the meeting will be able to get a close look at many of the participating students in what amounts to an early stage of the job interview process, Stelson says.

“Most of the [project] presentations are done by the students,” he explains. “That can give companies a cheap way to look at a lot of different students and perhaps spot ones you might be interested in. So coming to our annual meeting is a little like one-stop shopping for students from seven different universities,”

NFPA's Lanke adds that the student resume bank, among other features, will soon be in place.

“We're trying to facilitate that as much as we can,” he says. “The center has launched an internship program designed to match promising students with companies for summer positions.”

The center's success and growing awareness of it will also pay off, Lanke adds.

“A multiplier effect is going on,” Lanke explains. “By having these research activities at seven different campuses, all connected to the center, many more engineering students are getting exposed to fluid power than otherwise would have been. There's money for it and a heightened [fluid power] profile within these mechanical engineering departments at these schools.”

Stelson is optimistic that a fluid power comeback is in the offing. Obviously, as a businessman and a company president, Goode is also pleased at all this.

“One of the reasons NSF was so strident in doing this is, they're seeing competing technologies, [such as] motors with digital controls, that are starting to invade the space once held by fluid power—whether it be hydraulics or pneumatics,” he explains. “But fluid power still has a place in the market. It's still more desirable and cost-effective than electrical [right now].”

Lanke agrees, and adds that the center's work can “open up new markets for this technology. … What's coming out of the center can change the [fluid power] landscape,” he says.