The NFPA will present its IFPE Research Symposium March 11-13 during lunch presentations. This program showcases the latest fluid power research being performed at U.S. universities with funding provided by a new program within the U.S. Department of Energy to improve the energy efficiency of hydraulic systems on off-road vehicles.

The Symposium will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each day in room S231. Presentations include:

Individual Electrohydraulic Actuators for Off Road Machines, presented by Andrea Vacca, Purdue University. The objective of the project is to propose a new technology for electrohydraulic drives for machines. The project sub-goals are to develop and test a novel electrohydraulic pump/motor, to develop a layout architecture for electrohydraulic actuators, and to demonstrate the technology on off-road construction equipment. The target is to achieve improvements in fuel economy up to 70%, depending on the drive cycle.

Efficient, Compact, and Smooth Variable Propulsion Motor, presented by James Van de Ven, University of Minnesota. This work will develop a revolutionary variable displacement hydraulic motor for the propulsion drive of off-highway vehicles. The motor combines unmatched efficiency at all displacements, high displacement density, and low torque ripple. The high efficiency is a result of the mechanism using all rolling element bearings, low piston side-loads, and minimal unswept cylinder volume. The high displacement density is achieved through the radial piston packaging and a multi-lobe cam, creating multiple piston strokes per revolution. This talk will present the model driven design, optimization, and experimental testing of a prototype motor.

Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture for Mobile Machines, presented by Perry Li, University of Minnesota. The project will develop a system architecture for off-road mobile machines that marries the benefits of hydraulic actuation and electric actuation to achieve both energy-saving and control performance. The proposed approach is especially useful for high power/high force machines that would be difficult to electrify directly with conventional Electro-Hydraulic Actuation (EHA) technologies. The project will also investigate how best to integrate electric and hydraulic machines to achieve efficient and power energy conversion devices.

AEM members interested in research and development projects of importance to the fluid power and off-road machine industries are welcome to attend.

For more information, visit ifpe.com/education. Pre-registration is required to reserve one of the complimentary lunches each day.