July/August 2019

WELCOME TO THE TWENTY SECOND EDITION OF HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS’ ANNUAL BUYERS’ GUIDE With Brexit still undelivered and with a clear indication as to what it will ultimately mean for UK businesses and the economy still largely in the realms of conjecture, it is even more encouraging and reassuring to know there are many home-based enterprises continuing to invest in and deliver truly state-of-the-art World-class technology. This technology is increasingly offering real business and operational benefits for end users and OEMS through real-world transformative digital ingenuity. Indeed, Martin Cuthbert, managing director, Webtec, believes Digital Transformation is the bright star of the future. “That’s one of the key focus areas for us at the moment and it’s becoming increasingly relevant within our market space,” he said. “At Hannover Messe this year, it was again seen that German industry understands the Digital Transformation concept and its benefits very well. Certainly, from Webtec’s point of view we have seen more requests from our customers asking ‘how does Digital Transformation relate to my company and how can you help us to keep our equipment working efficiently as possible as well as help us to optimise the way our equipment is maintained?’” Charles Joel, IoT & data analytics director, Gardner Denver, considers that the key talking point in the compressed air system market is Industry 4.0, and how to take advantage of it to deliver operational improvements. “Generating compressed air accounts for 10% of total energy costs in industry, and minimising wastage is a key concern for all operators,” he said. “The data-driven insights generated by Industry 4.0 and the IoT offer great opportunities to use energy more efficiently.” To that end, Gardner Denver introduced a digital platform, iConn, a Cloud-based air management platform that provides historic, real-time, predictive and cognitive analytics, allowing users to rectify potential compressor issues before they happen. The environment is increasingly becoming top of mind, and so the need for greater energy efficiency has never been greater. Of course, achieving greater levels of energy efficiency also offers the attractive benefit of saving money too. Andy Jones, managing director, Mattei, makes the point that electrical consumption in the industrial sector is estimated to constitute over 50% of global usage (6673TWh), and up to 20% (1335 TWh) of this can be attributed to air compression and delivery to final uses. With this in mind, he believes it is clear that energy saving energy recovery in industrial compressed air systems is an important part any plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “These statistics are not lost on policy makers, and the legislative landscape is constantly evolving at a result,” he said. “Here at Mattei, we are continuing to make important steps in improving upon our compression technology in an effort to increase compressor mechanical and electrical efficiency. We are proud of the fact that we currently have the most energy efficient single stage rotary compressor available (with a specific energy efficiency of just 5.2kW/m³/min) and one of our priorities for the next 12 months is to build on this even further.” So, what else is on the horizon in terms of continuing development and innovation? Steve Sands, head of product management, Festo, believes that in the near future our workforces will have many interesting and potentially challenging changes to adapt to. “I can already see how they will be supported with Artificial Intelligence, interacting with Augmented Reality, working at interactive desks and pro-actively supported by Cobot assistants,” he said. Sands continued: “What will be the social and emotional impact of these changes? Will they fear the technology and change, or embrace it as a way of releasing them from boring, awkward or repetitive tasks? That depends on the quality of the change management process and the managers leading the change. Are they explaining and engaging with the workforce so they are part of the change, or is it something ‘done to them’? Technology will be available to make these changes. We have explored many of these concepts and can demonstrate their application and uses. Ensuring our people are properly led is a potentially more important and harder task to achieve, within the same timescales.” We hope you found the above comments stimulating and food for thought – even maybe to the extent that you might consider further investigation with a view to changing or enhancing the technological direction of your own business to your advantage. We also trust you find this year’s updated Buyers’ Guide a valuable and useful source of information for your equipment and service requirements. Ed Holden – Editor, Hydraulics & Pneumatics www.hpmag.co.uk www.airtech-expo.com NEC, 21-23 APRIL 2020 www.fluidpowersystems-expo.com