Local School District Helps Students Link Hydraulics to Future Transportation
By Jerry Merz, Consultant The Wauwatosa School District updated its 6th grade Technical Education program curriculum in 2013. The new curriculum incorporates pneumatics and hydraulics and the course culminating project utilizes the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) Challenge. 480 6th grade students took the class during the 2012-13 school year and were exposed to fluid…
Students Design Gantry Crane for Senior Capstone Project
For their senior capstone project, three students at Lawrence Technological University are working on a crane that uses fluid power to move large loads. The project, “A Gantry Crane Utilizing Fluid Power,” is being funded through a teaching grant from the NFPA Education and Technology Foundation. The objective is to design a fluid powered device…
February Standards Update
The latest progress on International Standards Doc # Name Stage/Close Date Impact Contamination control ISO 3723:1976 Hydraulic filter element end load test International Standard circulated to the U.S. TAG to ISO/TC 131/SC 6 for systematic review; ballot closes 2014-02-14. Improves reliability Control products — hydraulic ISO 4401:2005 Mounting surfaces for four-port hydraulic directional control valves…
NFPA Members Set to Gather for 2014 Annual Conference
[youtube id=”tTATRFQTX4k” width=”854″ height=”480″] [Exerpt of Peter Zeihan, Keynote at 2014 Annual Conference] You won’t want to miss out on NFPA’s high-profile speakers to provide multiple perspectives. Speakers include: Federal Regulations are a Drag (on US Manufacturing Competitiveness) – Stephen Gold, President and CEO of MAPI; Why a Healthy Industry Needs Pre-Competitive Research – Kim…
NFPA Creates a Forum for the Fluid Power Industry and its Customers at 2014 IFPE
NFPA will once again have a strong presence at IFPE 2014 being held March 4-8, 2014 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Co-located with CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2014, IFPE provides a perfect platform for interaction between engineers in fluid power and its key end-use markets. A Gathering Place The NFPA booth, centrally located on…
Member Company News
ACE Controls Inc. recently celebrated their 50th anniversary with a reception that included their distributor base as well as their employees. Bosch Rexroth training specialist, Mike Bryan, was named Trainer of the Year by the German American Chambers of Commerce (GACC). The GACC Award recognizes outstanding German subsidiaries that demonstrate excellence in workforce training by…
Membership Continues to Grow
CKD USA Corporation Rolling Meadows, IL – CKD USA Corporation is the US headquarters for CKD Corporation. For more than 70 years CKD has been engineering solutions for companies in the automotive, semiconductor, machine tool and general factory automation fields. CKD is a full line pneumatic, process control and electromechanical manufacturer serving the Global Market…
Fluid Power’s Role in Our Nation’s Energy Efficient Future – Part 1: Setting the Stage
by Eric Lanke, CEO Did you know that NFPA has been engaging in a dialogue with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)? You didn’t? Well, I’m not surprised. After all, I haven’t been writing very much about it. What’s it all about, you ask? Well, at the highest level, it’s very simple. We would like…
NFPA Education and Technology Foundation Awards Five New Teaching Grants
Five 2014 spring semester teaching grants have been awarded by the NFPA Education and Technology Foundation. Each grant will help strengthen interest in fluid power and help the Foundation in its efforts to attract some of the best and brightest students to our field. This brings the number of teaching grants to 34, given out to…
MAPI/Manufacturers Alliance Forecasts for NFPA Members
A monthly round-up of the MAPI resources available to NFPA members through NFPA’s membership in MAPI. Issues in the Brief Thwarting the IP Grinches Intellectual property protection is critical, and the barrage of threats from trolls, pirates and hackers means that companies are litigating, not innovating. What’s missing is a viable solution. Giving the PTO…
ISO Graphical Symbols Available Online by Subscription
Do you want to be sure that the fluid power graphical symbols you use every day are the latest and most accurate? The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) offers subscriptions to its graphical symbols collections via its Online Browsing Platform (OBP). Users can purchase a yearly subscription to have online access to either the entire…
The Latest Progress on International Standards
Doc # Name Stage/Close Date Impact Cylinders ISO 3320: 2013 Metric fluid power cylinder bores, piston rod diameters and area ratios Third edition of International Standard published 2013-12-01, superseding ISO 3320:1987 and ISO 7181:1991. Provides a globally-agreed series of dimensions and area ratios from which to select If you would like more information about these…