*Editor's note: This article was updated on October 9.
Sustainability is not a new concept, but one which continues to gain in importance as the environmental impacts of various activities become of greater concern to many industries and the global population at large.
But how is the fluid power industry working to become more sustainable? Creating more efficient hydraulic and pneumatic systems is one of the ways the industry is going about this. Doing so helps to reduce energy use, leading to lower emissions and fuel or electricity costs.
Other methods being employed include use of more environmentally friendly materials as well as 3D printing which allows less material to be used, and sometimes smaller sized components, leading to weight reductions and lower fuel use.
Watch our interview below with Jon Jensen, CFPPS, CFPECS & CFPAI, Industry Projects Manager - Energy, SMC Corporation of America (no relation to author) to learn about the drivers influencing development of efficient pneumatic systems.
There are many ways the fluid power industry is working to be more sustainable, and Power & Motion recently conducted a survey to learn more about how the design and use of hydraulics and pneumatics are being influenced by sustainability.
From this survey we learned the impact is great, and there are a variety of ways those in the fluid power sector are addressing sustainability. Among them include:
- designing products to last longer and be easier to repair
- use of electronic control and variable flow pumps
- minimizing leakage rates
- integration of sensors to monitor performance
- taking the entire product footprint/lifecycle into consideration.
Results from the survey will be shared the week of October 14 as part of a full week of new content related to the topic of sustainability. Our Sustainability Takeover Week, as we've termed it, will include new content covering the potential impacts of PFAS legistlation in the U.S. and elsewhere, a review of new materials being used to aid with sustainability efforts, and more. In addition, we will host a webinar on October 17 with industry experts providing their insights on how efficiency can benefit sustainability.
Have thoughts you’d like to share on how sustainability is impacting the fluid power industry, or topics related to this subject we should be covering? Email me at [email protected].
I'm always happy to hear from our audience to learn more about what they're working on or the content they'd like to see us cover, so feel free to reach out to let me know your thoughts on sustainability or any other topics impacting hydraulics and pneumatics as well as other motion control technologies.
