January/February 2021

BOARDROOM REPORT 24 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS January/February 2021 www.hpmag.co.uk Linear drive technology is growing particularly fast Increasing use of automation and robotics Shift towards general ‘motion control technology’ Fluids in use in hydraulics have been developed for use in sensitive environmental areas such as subsea. Buxton points out that the bulk of systems however still use mineral oils. “Companies are now claiming developments to lower friction in automotive oils and synthetic oils provide longer life for a larger initial investment,” he says. Buxton continues: “As the trade association responsible for this sector, the BFPA needs to respond to these trends and, equally importantly, help the membership to follow suite. There is also growing acceptance of the fact that there exist a number of challenges both in terms of required research and market education.” According to Buxton, the research challenges are: Increasing the energy efficiency of fluid power components and systems; improving and applying energy storage capabilities; and reducing the size of fluid power components and systems. The market education challenges, states Buxton, are: Building ‘smart’ components and systems; improving the reliability of fluid power components and systems; and reducing the environmental impact of fluid power components and systems. Vanda Jones, executive director, British Compressed Air Society (BCAS), explains that BCAS industry statistics are always an excellent barometer of industry performance and an indicator of any shift in demand for particular products or services. “They use order volumes for our manufacturing sector and revenue figures for our service delivery sector, to provide an instant indicator of where the broader economy is heading,” she explains. Jones adds that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the initial sharp downturn in the equipment orders is unsurprising, as is the fact that the service sector suffered less. “The compressed air industry did not stop working during the crisis,” she points out. “Key sectors still needed service support to help keep industries including, utilities, food and beverage as well as manufacturing working safely.” Rob Bartlett, director and CEO of the British Valve and Actuator Association (BVAA), reflects that a key focus at the moment is what the year 2021 holds for the industry. “2020 was severely dented, but on the whole survivable in business terms,” he says. “We hope for normalcy next year, but the ‘mood music’ at the moment isn’t great and there’s a feeling 2021 might actually be the poorer year.” With reference to the pandemic, Chessari comments that in many countries MP Filtri has seen a shortfall in business, while it remains strong in domestic and export markets. Ongoing product development In terms of product development within the vendor community during 2020, Stefan Gunter, sales and marketing director, Abdex Hose and Couplings Ltd, says suppliers to Abdex, such as Uniflex and Parker Polyflex, have been active bringing new products to market. “For example, Uniflex has brought new state- of-the-art hose cutting and crimping products to market to suit different types and sizes of hydraulic hoses,” he says. “Parker Polyflex, another key supplier within our portfolio, has also launched some innovative new lines, including PFX3010-5; a new range of 3010 bar hoses that will rationalise some of the previous lines in the portfolio, developed for ultra-high-pressure applications. These hoses combine excellent handling and long service life with very good safety standards. They are suitable for working pressures up to 301 MPa. From a business perspective during 2020, Gunter explains that Abdex experienced a slowdown of around 20 to 25% following the first UK lockdown period, although this quickly bounced back going into June and towards the end of the year, “Some key customers furloughed staff and this resulted in some of our regular contacts not being available,” explains Gunter. “A few customers also tried to cut out the distribution arm and go directly to the manufacturer for certain products in order to save money, we are lucky that none of our business partners would encourage this even in a difficult market. Some also wanted to look for sources of cheaper products. However, of course, cheaper often means more inferior. So, we discussed these issues with the companies concerned, emphasising that cheaper products don’t guarantee the same levels of reliability, longevity and safety. Also, with regard to distribution they came to appreciate that they could miss out on the all-important testing and dedicated aftersales service and support that we provide. We won most of them round in the end on this basis.” Martin Cuthbert, managing director, Webtec Products Ltd, considers that the pandemic has accelerated the move towards digitisation. “We all see that with the use of video conferencing, but the pandemic also has accelerated the discussions around predictive maintenance since current difficulties in being able to travel are now hindering the ability to service machines when they breakdown and thereby increasing the cost of a breakdown,” he says. “I think this is leading more companies to consider alternatives, such as using technology to measure system performance and try and predict failures before they happen. Webtec is active in this field and has many customers using our hydraulic measurement equipment for reactive, preventative and predictive maintenance. We are also involved in various projects to develop rugged products for permanent installation on online machines. Webtec is just publishing a training video, written by Steve Skinner for Webtec, explaining the benefits of the different maintenance approaches that could be of interest to readers. I think it only makes sense; the companies will increasingly want to be forewarned and forearmed to carry out service, especially as the cost of downtime continues to increase.” Chris Ringlstetter, president, ELGi Europe, considers that the buzz in the compressed air industry at the moment is the Internet of Things (IoT), which, as he explains, is all about collecting mass data allowing the integration of digital platforms into industrial processes and machines that improve energy efficiency, Stefan Gunter, sales and marketing director, Abdex Chris Buxton, CEO, British Fluid Power Association (BFPA) Vanda Jones, executive director, British Compressed Air Society (BCAS)