Today, let’s cover some details about the educational opportunities at IFPE. The Innovations Theater will be held at the convention center from March 5-7. Here, experts in the field will present real-world solutions for current and future design applications. These sessions are free of charge for anyone with a show badge. The sessions run Wednesday through Friday during regular exhibit hall hours.
There are also a series of half day college-level courses that are being offered from March 3-4:
Overview of fluid power systems
Monday, March 3, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Medhat Khalil, Director of Professional Education, Milwaukee School of Engineering
Gain a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of a hydraulic system’s construction and a comparison to other drive and control systems in the Overview of Fluid Power Systems course. Dr. Khalil will demonstrate a 30,000-foot view of the main components that consists a hydraulic system and how to read a schematics. This presentation will be finish up by discussing hydraulic circuits for basic applications.
Sizing a hydrostatic transmission using calculations
Monday, March 3, 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Tom Blansett, Manager, Training Services, Eaton
Learn two methods of calculations used to properly size and select the pump and motor for a closed circuit transmission application. The first method is to calculate the “Power range” of your vehicle or machine; this method is used when the final gear reduction between the motor and load is unknown or the customer wants assistance to select the final drive ratio. The second method is used when the final drive ratio is specified by the customer. The following is a list of the commonly encountered vehicle and machine performance requirements that will be calculated:
1) Tractive effort and vehicle speed in the normal working range.
2) Drawbar pull and vehicle speed in the normal working range.
3) Gradeability and vehicle speed in the normal working range.
Condition monitoring for hydraulic fluids
Tuesday, March 4, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm
James Hannon, ExxonMobil and Dr. Robert M. Gresham, Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineeers
Learn the basic concepts related to operating and maintaining real-world hydraulic systems through proper fluid selection and condition monitoring techniques. This course is divided in three parts: An STLE overview, oil analysis (overview & business case), and hydraulic fluid selection (consisting of application/environment and condition monitoring).
Design, modeling and control of hybrid powertrains
Tuesday, March 4 , 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Zongxuan Sun, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota
With the rising oil demand and concerns on climate change, improving fuel efficiency and reducing emissions has become the main target of powertrain research for both on-road vehicles and off-road machineries. Powertrain hybridization has been widely accepted as one of the most promising solutions for addressing this issue. In a hybrid powertrain, an alternative power source (such as electric power or fluid power) complements the internal combustion engine, to improve fuel efficiency by engine downsizing, load leveling, and regenerative braking. This short course will cover the background information, the various types of hybrid powertrain systems, different hybrid architectures, and the modeling and control of the hybrid powertrain.
This year’s show runs from March 4-8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Visit www.ifpe.com for details.
