With the buzz word being ‘smart’, Dr S Prasanna Kumar deliberates on disruptive technologies that would contribute to the growth of fluid power technology 

 

Ever since the Pascal’s law or the principle of transmission of fluid pressure was evolved in 1647, the fluid power has been applied in various forms for obtaining the advantage of force multiplication. It is also one of the less noisy power houses as also more efficient. Over the years, it has seen many applications in industrial hydraulics, mobile hydraulics and in aerospace industry. As it evolved, hydraulic components and systems have not only become more compact, more energy efficient but become ‘smart’ too.

 

Technological revolutions are occurring ever since the development of technology. It is not new to this century. Progress has been made due to technological revolutions and we have reaped the benefits in transport (cars, trains, and aircrafts), manufacturing (mass production, lean manufacturing, CNC machines, automation) and media (telephone, photography, television) and in numerous other areas. But, the disruptive technology results in rapid change of preferences with the sudden death of existing option. The introduction of hydraulic excavators, as a disruptive technology, has seen its usage in mobile hydraulics, disrupting the age old rope chain mechanism. Thus, the industrial hydraulics and mobile hydraulics became two arms of fluid power technology.

 

Disruptive technologies continue to haunt and contribute to the growth of fluid power technology. We deliberate on what are the disruptive technologies that are prevalent now, which we must be aware of. In the present decade, six technologies can be identified to be disruptive in nature: cloud computing, big data analytics, smart algorithms, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and 3D manufacturing/printing. Recently Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been added to the list. At a glance, it may look as if these have no connection with fluid power technology, but each one of these technologies will affect the fluid power industry.

 

Robotics has always grown with the use of hydraulics and pneumatics. There have been instances that other than many hydraulic components, even a hydraulic robot has been 3D printed. In the recent years, the innovative use of industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has contributed to the growth of fluid power industry, for such uses as adaptation of Industry 4.0 as well as tracking and performance monitoring of mobile equipments. Analytics is used to make sense of large amount of data gathered in Industry 4.0.

 

The Industry 4.0 has contributed to a connected factory with connected components and as never before, the operation, maintenance, performance evaluation and control is at the finger tips or as they say at the click of the mouse.

 

The use of telematics has resulted in possibility of remote control of hydraulic/pneumatic devices. The IIoT powered backhoe loaders, excavators and crawlers are being introduced for tracking locally, nationally and beyond borders. Smart innovative solutions are used for improving productivity and enhancing performance.

 

As has been narrated till now, it can be seen that the dissemination of loads of information is necessary to catch up with the rapid advances in technology. Realising this as early as 1973, the Fluid Power Society of India (FPSI) was started in Bengaluru. It has contributed 44 years as a professional platform for disseminating the knowledge of fluid power and also facilitated interaction among fluid power professionals. When fluid power was not demarcated as a separate subject of engineering, the founder-pioneers have joined together from public and private enterprises and nucleated the Society and nurtured its growth.

 

During the initial years, monthly meetings of interested professionals were held to bring together and thus made it as a ‘connected’ professional body. To bring together professionals from various cities, seminars were organised bi-annually, which included table top exhibits also. Over the years, the exhibitions were held on a larger scale. The combo events comprising of CEO conclave, seminar and exhibition turned in to a trade mark event of FPSI over a decade. Subsequently, the popularity of FPSI events was noticed by the Hannover Fairs and they joined hands with FPSI, conducting trade exhibitions in India during the last decade.

 

In recent years, the technical seminar as a stand- alone event has been revived and has been received well among the professionals. Since the fluid power has grown seamlessly from hydraulics & pneumatics to mechatronics, automation and IIoT requirements, there is a need to disseminate technical information through these professional gatherings. In the Fluid Power Technical Seminar FPTS 2016, technical papers on the fluid power applications in the upcoming aerospace industry and defence sector were presented and debated. In the FPTS 2017, the innovative use of IIoT in tagging hydraulic components and monitoring mobile equipments were presented with high interest having been shown by the delegates. 

 

The presence of hydraulics and pneumatics in various sectors like steel plants, defence applications, aerospace, industrial automation and connected factory concept of Industry 4.0 have increased the usage of fluid power. With the infra projects being given a push, mobile hydraulics is also poised for sustained growth. 

 

The quantum of production and usage of total hydraulic and pneumatic components in India is difficult to report, as the statistics are not reliable due to incomplete reporting. With the GST being all embracing, there is hope that better statistics will be collected over the years. The fluid power components used in India are from three different sources. First source is those equipments containing fluid power components directly imported for use in India as well as those components imported for assembly in India. Second source is those which are assembled in India (both made-in-India as well as make-in-India category), with imported technology. The third source is those components and systems fully designed and manufactured in India, which at present is not a high percentage.

 

In the last decade, many multinational companies have started investing in India to set up R&D facilities, which will support their product development programmes. The impact of the same is still to be assessed, as they cater mostly to their in-house development, as an extension of their mother unit, located elsewhere. Except for fluid control research institute, (FCRI, which is NABL accredited), catering to calibration of flow meters in water, oil and air media, there are no other R&D institutes for fluid power funded by the government.

 

In the latter half of the present decade, there has been renewed effort by the government to revive power projects, speed up road projects and undertake infrastructure projects with multitude benefits. This has been anticipated and most of the cases demand has been met. But the anticipated high growth soon after budget for next year has made the fluid power industry to accelerate their production to meet the extra demand expected from infra sector. 

 

There may be problem in meeting the demand in cases where the simultaneous introduction of large scale automation, Industry 4.0 and IIoT criteria and this will put pressure on production of compatible components and systems. The connected components for the Industry 4.0 as well as demand in the area of automation and IIoT compliant mobile equipment may have to be serviced by imported components, if these manufacturers do not adapt and deliver.

 

With the buzz word being ‘smart’, fluid power technology has already woken up and aligned for servicing the requirements. It is making full use of innovative disruptive technologies. But wait and watch attitude of some entities may delay the party and they may have to run faster in the next lap.

 

Let us circulate so that we stay connected and become smart!

 

Dr S Prasanna Kumar is the Advisor to Fluid Power Society of India (FPSI) and Principal Consultant of Avenues Consulting Inc, Bengaluru.