Industrial protection producer A&A Manufacturing announced that it has selected a new trade name and brand mark, as Gortite and Gortrac combine with the organization’s other six companies to create the new business entity Dynatect. With seven manufacturing plants and two distribution locations worldwide, Dynatect is the largest manufacturer of dynamic industrial equipment protection in […]
NFPA’s IEOC Day 2: Hydraulics is not going away, not by a long shot
As long as I’ve been covering the fluid power industry—nearly two decades—there has been an undercurrent of concern as to whether hydraulics was slowly going away. Were electrics or some other combination of motion control technology going to force it into the sunset? Wasn’t it just a matter of time before the inevitable happened? So […]
Sandvik Mining finds a unique use for a linear position sensor
Sandvik Mining is a drilling solutions provider focused on the design and manufacturing of a wide range of underground in-the-hole (ITH), and geo-technical drilling equipment. The company’s products are distributed globally, and its main markets are the United States, Canada, Africa, South America, and Australia. Sandvik’s DU421-C ITH drill is an underground production drill that […]
Hydraulics is bringing the sexy back with Mandroid
We all know that hydraulics is making a comeback of sorts in robotics, with some of the amazing creations that companies such as Boston Dynamic have been designing. But now Old Spice—never one to shy away from eccentric commercial campaigns—has introduced the Mandroid, some sort of electric/hydraulic hybrid robot that stumbles into love, no matter […]
Start planning now for NFPA’s IEOC!
One of the most informative events of the year for me is the National Fluid Power Association’s annual Industry & Economic Outlook Conference. Usually held in the Chicago suburbs, the event is a great networking opportunity, but also provides attendees with some insightful long- and short-term information on the economy, both here in the U.S. and across […]
Rexroth’s M4 Rapid Production Program offers quick delivery
Recognizing the high performance demands and tight development schedules on equipment manufacturers, Bosch Rexroth has introduced the Rapid Production Program for its series M4 control blocks. The Rapid Production Program is intended to provide a quick delivery response for market-oriented assemblies in custom arrangements to the marketplace in 10 working days. The available options selected […]
Is it a fair fight? Hydraulics vs. electrics
By Josh Cosford In my last blog, I squared hydraulics off against pneumatics in a battle to decide the champion of fluid power. The judges called it a draw, because the competitors simply weren’t in the same weight class. Hydraulics is the super heavy-weight of mechanical motivation, with power to spare, but not always light […]
The Metric vs Inch debate: Retaining rings weigh in
The retaining ring was invented in Germany nearly 100 years ago and naturally followed the DIN metric standard since its inception. When the retaining ring was first produced in the U.S. a few decades later, it conformed to the inch standard. The U.S. engineers who conceived the inch version considered their design an improvement over […]
Hydraulics and pneumatics: The big battle
By Josh Cosford Fewer topics in the fluid power realm garner more conversation than that of the differences between hydraulics and pneumatics. The two types of fluid power motivation are very similar, both in the use of a fluid to transmit mechanical energy and the executions using similar terminology, symbols and components. Both hydraulic and […]
IFPE 2014 was very much a success
How do you measure whether a trade show was a success? Was it the number of contacts that you (as an attendee) made? Was it the amount of new design ideas you thought of? Was is how many solutions you found to pain points in your design process? Well, from this editor’s standpoint, IFPE 2014 […]