AEM's collaborative effort to complete a technology roadmapping effort with the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) is now underway.
Conducted every two years, the technology roadmapping initiative serves to, in part, to identify the technology needs of companies in markets represented by AEM members and serviced by NFPA members. AEM and NFPA have commenced with a new refresh cycle that will culminate in the production of a new document in August of 2023. AEM and NFPA are seeking feedback from a wide array of stakeholders on the current needs of companies in fluid power’s many customer markets, how fluid power technologies currently align with those needs, and what improvements should be made to fluid power systems in order to better meet them.
The first survey will focus on customer drivers, namely the business or technology objectives of the machine builders in fluid power's 20 largest customer markets. Customer drivers describe the benefits that they wish to provide to their customers, the buyers or users of their machines.
Please take a few minutes to complete the survey.
Respondents will be taken through the 20 largest fluid power customer markets and asked to respond only for those with which they have familiarity. Those markets are:
- Aerospace Product and Parts Manufacturing
- Agricultural Machinery
- Automotive and Light Truck Manufacturing
- Chemical Processing Machinery
- Class 4-8 Trucks (including vocational trucks)
- Construction Machinery
- Food Processing Machinery
- Lawn and Garden Equipment
- Material Handling (including conveying) Equipment
- Medical Equipment
- Metalworking Machinery and Machine Tools
- Mining Machinery
- Oil & Gas Machinery
- Packaging Machinery
- Paper Machinery
- Plastics and Rubber Machinery
- Power Generation Equipment
- Printing Machinery
- Sawmill and Woodworking Machinery
- Semiconductor Machinery
The 2021 NFPA Technology Roadmap: Improving the Design, Manufacture and Function of Fluid Power Components and Systems, the previous roadmapping document completed by an interassociation committee comprised of AEM and NFPA members, remains available for download. It identifies seven broad capability improvements for the fluid power industry to work toward better serving and expanding its customer markets. They are:
- Improve fluid power control systems (including through electrification)
- Monitor, gather and use data generated from working fluid power products to add value
- Improve fluid power’s reliability and durability
- Increase fluid power’s energy efficiency
- Increase fluid power’s power density
- Reduce the environmental impact of fluid power components and systems
- Reduce lead time for fluid power components and their control elements
For each of these capability improvements, the roadmap also identifies a set of research targets that quantify or otherwise describe successful strategies for pursuing advancements in these areas.
For more information, contact NFPA’s Eric Lanke at elanke@nfpa.com or AEM’s Sara Feuling at sfeuling@aem.org.
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