Fluid power research at MSOE helps move world
First seminar attracts participants from Midwest
Whether it’s an amusement park ride or a giant piece of construction equipment, the technology is the same, and it may have come from Wisconsin.
Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest is a hub for fluid power, or liquid under pressure, that provides the muscle for almost every type of big machine, including theme park rides.
“People don’t realize that Disney World would not function without fluid power,” said Tom Wanke, director of the Fluid Power Institute at Milwaukee School of Engineering.
MSOE has partnered with the National Fluid Power Association, also based in Milwaukee, to offer education seminars, the first of which was held last week and attracted participants from Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and South Dakota.
The engineering school has done industry-funded research for off-road equipment makers Caterpillar, Joy Global and John Deere. Those companies, and many others like them, have strong ties to Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest.
Roughly 75% of the nation’s fluid power industry is located within about 300 miles of Milwaukee, from Chicago to Minneapolis, a product of the region’s industrial heritage.
When it comes to fluid power, most people think of hydraulic motors. They use fluid under pressure to generate, control and transmit power.
Among thousands of uses, they swing the boom on a crane, turn the drum on a cement mixer, and make power brakes and power steering possible on a car.
“It really is a technology that’s ubiquitous in our society. Any time that you need to move something, especially something heavy with precision, fluid power is the technology of choice,” said Eric Lanke, president of the National Fluid Power Association.
Researchers are seeking ways to scaledown fluid power applications to human-size prosthetics. Current reality has started to resemble science fiction in bionic arms and legs operated by pressurized fluid and gases.
“You could have, in essence, superhuman strength,” Wanke said.
“We are on the forefront of being there. It’s just a matter of whatever pressure you can generate and contain in a system,” he added.
One major hurdle is coming up with a small sustainable power supply to generate the pressurized fluid for something like a bionic leg.
“You don’t want to charge a battery every four hours, or plug yourself into the wall, so that you can walk around,” Wanke said.
Digital 3D printers are being used to create fully functioning hydraulic prosthetics for infants that are body-powered and enable the wearer to grow accustomed to their new limb quicker.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a lower leg prosthetic, called the “Rheo Knee,” which moves based on fluid, making a more realistic walking motion.
The new prosthetics could be life-changing for many war veterans who lost their natural limbs from explosions.
“Many of the new things happening now with fluid power are in the area of prosthetics and exoskeletons,” Wanke said.
Research is under way for using hydraulic fluid power to generate electricity from offshore sources, essentially tapping the energy from the motion of waves.
Wind turbines use a lot of fluid power to generate electricity. And an airplane wouldn’t fly without it.
Often you don’t see it, but fluid power is everywhere.
“I would definitely say it affects your life every day,” Wanke said.