NEWS FROM PENTON MEDIA AND HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS MAGAZINE
SPRING 2010 – TWO Education-Packed Expos!
Join us for two education-packed events in 2010 that will showcase educational sessions on a variety of topics from fluid power fundamentals to compressed air preparation, motion control basics to hydraulic systems filtration, and much, much more. Don’t miss the most exciting year ever for FLUID POWER CONFERENCE & EXPO!APRIL 2010 EXPO
April 6-7, 2010: FLUID POWER CONFERENCE & EXPO will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. FLUID POWER CONFERENCE & EXPO is THE industry meeting place where attendees can see new products, build valuable relationships, hear about major industry trends & issues, and invest in their business future. Learn from some of the best and brightest fluid power industry experts in our marketplace, and see the newest products and technology on display from those experts. This exciting event is our flagship fluid power educational conference each year, so don’t miss it!
* How-to Sessions
* Case Studies
* Shirtsleeves Workshops
* Roundtable Discussions
* New products, services and innovations
* FREE lunch for all attendees at the April 2010 Expo only!
*Registration for the April 2010 Fluid Power Conference & Expo is open. Please click the “ATTEND” page for further updates and pricing.
MAY 2010 EXPO
May 3-6, 2010: FLUID POWER CONFERENCE & EXPO will co-locate with WasteExpo at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. WasteExpo’s exhibit hall will offer solutions in Collection/Transfer (solid waste collection), Landfill Management, Recycling/Processing/Composting, Truck Components & Supplies, and Technology. In addition, the FLUID POWER CONFERENCE & EXPO Pavilion will be showcased on the exhibit hall floor, along with the National Fluid Power Association. Join hundreds of industry-leading companies and thousands of attendees at North America’s largest tradeshow serving the $55 billion solid waste and recycling industries. Visit WasteExpo for more information on WasteExpo.
Labels: fluid power education, fluid power events, news
Monday, January 25, 2010
Hydraulic Hybrids Continue to Shine for 2010
Hydraulic Hybrid Systems refocuses on core technology
By Tom Hacker
Loveland Reporter-Herald
By Tom Hacker
Loveland Reporter-Herald
Denver International Airport’s fleet of 200-plus light-duty trucks, used for everything from plowing snow to maintaining runway lights, burned through about $1.3 million worth of gasoline and diesel fuel last year.
Everybody connected with the airport, from the guy who manages the fleet to Mayor John Hickenlooper, would like to see that number come down. So, they’ve turned to Loveland company Hydraulic Hybrid Systems for a solution that eventually could cut fuel use by as much as 40 percent.
A forerunner in the “other” hybrid vehicle technology — hydraulic, instead of electric as exemplified by the Toyota Prius — HHS is angling for a slice of the market made up of 6 million light-duty trucks in the United States alone.
What they offer is a hydraulic propulsion system that, when paired with a standard diesel or gasoline engine, can reduce fuel use by 40 percent and emissions by half.
“It’s something that everybody’s been waiting for, and nobody’s done it,” DIA fleet manager Bernie Maez said. “They’re really going to shine when they get done with their product.”
HHS is the relatively new subsidiary of Lightning Hybrids Inc., the company that burst upon Loveland’s business scene in 2008 with plans to produce a 100-mile-per-gallon, high-performance sports car.
The new company is focused not on building a sexy new car, but on developing the technology that powers it for use in more mundane fleet vehicles.
That technology is at once elegantly simple and infinitely complex.
First, the simplicity: The system stores energy used in braking in high-pressure tanks, built to contain 5,000 pounds per square inch, then releases that power to a hydraulic motor that propels the vehicle during acceleration.
The second key ingredient that HHS engineers are perfecting is more complicated. It’s the computerized controller that senses the most efficient way to balance power between the hydraulic and conventional engines.
HHS and Lightning Hybrids founders Dan Johnson and Tim Reeser last fall decided to shelve the sports car plan in favor of perfecting the hydraulic hybrid technology, a business decision driven by harsh reality.
“The crux of it was that it was going to cost $4 million to produce the car,” Reeser said. “We couldn’t raise that. But it’s not just us. NASCAR’s not getting their sponsors, either,” he added, referring to the nation’s premier stock-car racing organization.
Eyes Off the Prize
Abandoning the Lightning project, at least for now, also meant dropping out of the quest for the Progressive Insurance “X Prize,” a goal that the founders announced when Lightning Hybrid first emerged.
The insurance company’s global competition to produce the most efficient and highest-performance 100-mile-per-gallon vehicle will award $10 million to the winner.
A 23-page business plan that HHS revised this month serves as a road map to profitability, with some lofty goals set for the next two years that would eclipse the X-Prize target.
For the current year, HHS projects sales of 1,050 systems — priced at $12,900 each — but will still post an operating loss of just over $800,000.
But by 2011, according to the plan, unit sales will climb to 7,500, resulting in cash flow of nearly $16.4 million.
Simultaneously, the company will redevelop a building at 319 N. Cleveland Ave. in downtown Loveland to serve as its new, 8,000-square-foot home.
Profitability will also drive employment upward from the current 12 workers, including six interns paid by the Larimer County Workforce Center, to 36 full-time employees by the end of this year, the plan says.
Crucial Door Opens
A market gateway opened for HHS when Denver-based consultant Richard LeFrancois made a trip to the company last fall.
LeFrancois’ firm, Equipment Maintenance Innovators LLC, is one of the nation’s pre-eminent providers of advice on energy-efficiency technologies for the trucking industry. Clients include Conoco-Phillips, British Petroleum, and, yes, DIA.
“I think HHS has a tremendous future,” LeFrancois said. “We’re at the threshold of getting adoption of this technology into our industry, and they are perfectly positioned to take advantage of that.”
The key to HHS’ potential success is as much a matter of people as it is product, he said.
Company chief executive Johnson is the former founder and principal of SA Robotics Inc., a Loveland company that produces remotely controlled machines used to clean up deadly waste at nuclear plants.
Johnson and his wife, co-owner of SA Robotics, sold the company in 2008 after building its annual revenue to $20 million.
“It’s Dan’s entrepreneurial spirit,” LeFrancois said. “If you look internally at HHS, and Dan Johnson in particular, you have something very special. You have this guy who came out of the nuclear industry, and transferred everything he learned and perfected to an entirely new industry.”
Johnson’s new focus on the light-duty truck market doesn’t mean he has permanently abandoned his wish to build the perfect car, he said.
“The car is sexy. This isn’t so much,” he said. “But we’ve got to develop the technology in any case. When the time is right, it will be ready to go.”
Everybody connected with the airport, from the guy who manages the fleet to Mayor John Hickenlooper, would like to see that number come down. So, they’ve turned to Loveland company Hydraulic Hybrid Systems for a solution that eventually could cut fuel use by as much as 40 percent.
A forerunner in the “other” hybrid vehicle technology — hydraulic, instead of electric as exemplified by the Toyota Prius — HHS is angling for a slice of the market made up of 6 million light-duty trucks in the United States alone.
What they offer is a hydraulic propulsion system that, when paired with a standard diesel or gasoline engine, can reduce fuel use by 40 percent and emissions by half.
“It’s something that everybody’s been waiting for, and nobody’s done it,” DIA fleet manager Bernie Maez said. “They’re really going to shine when they get done with their product.”
HHS is the relatively new subsidiary of Lightning Hybrids Inc., the company that burst upon Loveland’s business scene in 2008 with plans to produce a 100-mile-per-gallon, high-performance sports car.
The new company is focused not on building a sexy new car, but on developing the technology that powers it for use in more mundane fleet vehicles.
That technology is at once elegantly simple and infinitely complex.
First, the simplicity: The system stores energy used in braking in high-pressure tanks, built to contain 5,000 pounds per square inch, then releases that power to a hydraulic motor that propels the vehicle during acceleration.
The second key ingredient that HHS engineers are perfecting is more complicated. It’s the computerized controller that senses the most efficient way to balance power between the hydraulic and conventional engines.
HHS and Lightning Hybrids founders Dan Johnson and Tim Reeser last fall decided to shelve the sports car plan in favor of perfecting the hydraulic hybrid technology, a business decision driven by harsh reality.
“The crux of it was that it was going to cost $4 million to produce the car,” Reeser said. “We couldn’t raise that. But it’s not just us. NASCAR’s not getting their sponsors, either,” he added, referring to the nation’s premier stock-car racing organization.
Eyes Off the Prize
Abandoning the Lightning project, at least for now, also meant dropping out of the quest for the Progressive Insurance “X Prize,” a goal that the founders announced when Lightning Hybrid first emerged.
The insurance company’s global competition to produce the most efficient and highest-performance 100-mile-per-gallon vehicle will award $10 million to the winner.
A 23-page business plan that HHS revised this month serves as a road map to profitability, with some lofty goals set for the next two years that would eclipse the X-Prize target.
For the current year, HHS projects sales of 1,050 systems — priced at $12,900 each — but will still post an operating loss of just over $800,000.
But by 2011, according to the plan, unit sales will climb to 7,500, resulting in cash flow of nearly $16.4 million.
Simultaneously, the company will redevelop a building at 319 N. Cleveland Ave. in downtown Loveland to serve as its new, 8,000-square-foot home.
Profitability will also drive employment upward from the current 12 workers, including six interns paid by the Larimer County Workforce Center, to 36 full-time employees by the end of this year, the plan says.
Crucial Door Opens
A market gateway opened for HHS when Denver-based consultant Richard LeFrancois made a trip to the company last fall.
LeFrancois’ firm, Equipment Maintenance Innovators LLC, is one of the nation’s pre-eminent providers of advice on energy-efficiency technologies for the trucking industry. Clients include Conoco-Phillips, British Petroleum, and, yes, DIA.
“I think HHS has a tremendous future,” LeFrancois said. “We’re at the threshold of getting adoption of this technology into our industry, and they are perfectly positioned to take advantage of that.”
The key to HHS’ potential success is as much a matter of people as it is product, he said.
Company chief executive Johnson is the former founder and principal of SA Robotics Inc., a Loveland company that produces remotely controlled machines used to clean up deadly waste at nuclear plants.
Johnson and his wife, co-owner of SA Robotics, sold the company in 2008 after building its annual revenue to $20 million.
“It’s Dan’s entrepreneurial spirit,” LeFrancois said. “If you look internally at HHS, and Dan Johnson in particular, you have something very special. You have this guy who came out of the nuclear industry, and transferred everything he learned and perfected to an entirely new industry.”
Johnson’s new focus on the light-duty truck market doesn’t mean he has permanently abandoned his wish to build the perfect car, he said.
“The car is sexy. This isn’t so much,” he said. “But we’ve got to develop the technology in any case. When the time is right, it will be ready to go.”
Labels: fluid power systems, green technology, hybrid systems, mobile hydraulic, news
Mobile Hydraulic News: Hydraulic Hybrids Taking to the Streets
Hydraulic hybrid retrofit for refuse trucks
Jan 22, 2010 11:19 AM, By Jim Mele, Editor-in-chief, FleetOwner Magazine
A new hydraulic hybrid retrofit kit specifically designed for refuse collection trucks can deliver up to 30% better fuel economy while increasing brake life and improving productivity, according to the developer Eaton Corp.
The Hydraulic Launch Assist (HLA) hybrid system will be available for installation in Mack LE, MR and Granit chassis later this year, with kits for other makes and models to follow, according to Robert Golin, business development manager for Eaton’s Hybrid Power Systems.
The retrofit is a parallel hybrid system that sits between the transmission and rear axle. It uses the momentum of the truck to compress hydraulic fluid when slowing the vehicle and then releases the stored energy in the fluid to help the truck accelerate on takeoff. It is especially well suited for applications with frequent stops and starts such as refuse collection trucks.
“A Class 8 automated side loader is a great application for HLA because it can make 1,400 stops in a day,” said Golin. It is also simpler than a diesel electric hybrid system and at 1,200 lbs. weighs less than half as much, he said. Diesel electric systems make sense for applications with less stop and go, but “Why have the cost and complexity (of a diesel electric system) when HLA gives you what you need in a refuse truck?” Golin asks.
The Eaton HLA has two operating modes that can be set by the fleet. The first provides maximum fuel economy, using only the stored kinetic energy in the hydraulic fluid to start the truck moving from a stop. That initial boost can be up to 180 hp and can accelerate a stop refuse truck up to 12 MPH in four to six seconds, according to Golin.
The second operating mode provides maximum productivity, combine the diesel engine’s power with the HLA’s to increase acceleration by 16 to 22% and deliver an overall 10% improvement in productivity. “That means a truck can handle more bins in a day, and more bins mean more revenue," said Golin.
Installed in a 2- or 3-yr. old chassis, the Eaton HLA should offer refuse fleets a 3-yr. payback, according to Golin. By taking over much of the vehicle’s braking, it will extend the life of service brakes by four to five times, eliminating up to four brake jobs a year at $1,800 to $2,000 a piece, he estimates. Fuel savings from using the power stored on braking should save another $3,000 to $4,000 a year, and additional productivity gains should boost yearly savings from the HLA system to about $15,000, Golin said.
The first Eaton HLA retrofit kits are intended for Mack LE, MR and Granite chassis with Allison automatic transmissions, a common combination for side-loader refuse collection trucks. They will installed by a network of service providers trained and certified by Eaton, who will also provide service and warranty support, Golin explained. Eaton expects to begin delivering the kits to the first certified installers “in the next couple of months,” he said.
Designed for a 10-yr. life and tested up to 3.3 million operating cycles, the HLA hydraulics are self-contained and completely separate from the refuse packer’s hydraulic system. “Our system is also completely fuel agnostic, so it can even work with CNG-powered trucks to help them regain some of the power lost (with that fuel),” Golin says.
Hydraulic hybrid retrofit for refuse trucks
Jan 22, 2010 11:19 AM, By Jim Mele, Editor-in-chief, FleetOwner Magazine
A new hydraulic hybrid retrofit kit specifically designed for refuse collection trucks can deliver up to 30% better fuel economy while increasing brake life and improving productivity, according to the developer Eaton Corp.
The Hydraulic Launch Assist (HLA) hybrid system will be available for installation in Mack LE, MR and Granit chassis later this year, with kits for other makes and models to follow, according to Robert Golin, business development manager for Eaton’s Hybrid Power Systems.
The retrofit is a parallel hybrid system that sits between the transmission and rear axle. It uses the momentum of the truck to compress hydraulic fluid when slowing the vehicle and then releases the stored energy in the fluid to help the truck accelerate on takeoff. It is especially well suited for applications with frequent stops and starts such as refuse collection trucks.
“A Class 8 automated side loader is a great application for HLA because it can make 1,400 stops in a day,” said Golin. It is also simpler than a diesel electric hybrid system and at 1,200 lbs. weighs less than half as much, he said. Diesel electric systems make sense for applications with less stop and go, but “Why have the cost and complexity (of a diesel electric system) when HLA gives you what you need in a refuse truck?” Golin asks.
The Eaton HLA has two operating modes that can be set by the fleet. The first provides maximum fuel economy, using only the stored kinetic energy in the hydraulic fluid to start the truck moving from a stop. That initial boost can be up to 180 hp and can accelerate a stop refuse truck up to 12 MPH in four to six seconds, according to Golin.
The second operating mode provides maximum productivity, combine the diesel engine’s power with the HLA’s to increase acceleration by 16 to 22% and deliver an overall 10% improvement in productivity. “That means a truck can handle more bins in a day, and more bins mean more revenue," said Golin.
Installed in a 2- or 3-yr. old chassis, the Eaton HLA should offer refuse fleets a 3-yr. payback, according to Golin. By taking over much of the vehicle’s braking, it will extend the life of service brakes by four to five times, eliminating up to four brake jobs a year at $1,800 to $2,000 a piece, he estimates. Fuel savings from using the power stored on braking should save another $3,000 to $4,000 a year, and additional productivity gains should boost yearly savings from the HLA system to about $15,000, Golin said.
The first Eaton HLA retrofit kits are intended for Mack LE, MR and Granite chassis with Allison automatic transmissions, a common combination for side-loader refuse collection trucks. They will installed by a network of service providers trained and certified by Eaton, who will also provide service and warranty support, Golin explained. Eaton expects to begin delivering the kits to the first certified installers “in the next couple of months,” he said.
Designed for a 10-yr. life and tested up to 3.3 million operating cycles, the HLA hydraulics are self-contained and completely separate from the refuse packer’s hydraulic system. “Our system is also completely fuel agnostic, so it can even work with CNG-powered trucks to help them regain some of the power lost (with that fuel),” Golin says.
Labels: fluid power systems, green technology, hybrid systems, mobile hydraulic, news
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Applied Industrial Technologies Named to Selling Power Magazine’s 2009 "50 Best Companies to Sell For"
Companies featured completed an extensive survey requesting key data important to prospective employees looking to enter the sales profession. The Selling Power research team compiled, analyzed and scored the data with a concentration on three key categories: compensation, training and career mobility. Each company was given an overall score and a comparison rating to other selected companies. Applied received 76 out of a total of 77 possible points on both the 2008 and 2009 lists. This prestigious ranking is primarily focused on large companies with sales organizations of 500 or more salespeople.
CLEVELAND, OH (December 3, 2009) – Applied Industrial Technologies (NYSE: AIT) has been named to Selling Power magazine’s annual list of “The 50 Best Companies to Sell For” in the U.S. Their top 50 is split into two lists: “The 25 Best Manufacturing Companies to Sell For” and “The 25 Best Service Companies to Sell For.” Applied, the highest ranked distribution company on the list, maintained its number three ranking in the service company category after making its debut within the standings in 2008.
“This is a great compliment to our company in a year that has been exceptionally challenging to so many sale organizations,” said Ben Mondics, President & Chief Operating Officer for Applied. “Ours is still a people business, built on the relationships, knowledge and talents our sales people put forth every day to maintain a high level of customer service. We recognize that it takes an investment in training and technology to maintain this status.”
With approximately 460 facilities and 4,700 employee associates across North America, Applied Industrial Technologies is an industrial distributor that offers more than 3 million parts critical to the operations of MRO and OEM customers in virtually every industry. In addition, Applied provides engineering, design and systems integration for industrial and fluid power applications, as well as customized mechanical, fabricated rubber and fluid power shop services. For its fiscal year ended June 30, 2009, Applied posted sales of $1.9 billion. Applied can be visited on the Internet at http://www.applied.com.
Labels: news