Fifty Years of Fluid Power

Four years as ASSOFLUID president, on the fiftieth anniversary of the association’s founding, Domenico Di Monte looks back, as well as forwards. An interview that covers all the bases, from the role the association should play to technological evolution and the constant growth enjoyed in the fluid power sector over recent years.

by Silvia Crespi

Four years as ASSOFLUID president, is it the moment to take stock?
Personally, I am very satisfied with the work the association and board has carried out over the 2014 – 2017 period, with the same board going ahead for 2017-2021, integrating new resources with the solid support of the vast majority of companies it represents. These are all elements confirming the sharing of common goals, and this is the most important aspect for me. As I have always said, it is necessary to face both structural as well as content questions and this is what we have done over the last 4 years. From the creation of the AFL Services company to the new headquarters, the communication platforms like InMotion or the powerandmotionworld website. Not forgetting training courses with the growth of the CETOP programme, institutional agreements with the MIUR ministry for education, sectorial analysis statistics in collaboration with the Politecnico university in Milan and the partnership with the publishing house HOEPLI creating documents specializing in our field. In my opinion, the training concept is also present in the project with the Federmacchine association, events in the “Assofluid meets …” programme not to mention the many conferences held on specific subjects concerning our business which aim to help spread the culture of industrial excellence. Of course, the jewel in the crown of the association’s work is in the statistical analysis and growing international presence through participation at the world’s leading trade fairs like SPS, Hannover Messe and the whole MDA, EIMA circuit as well as many others. If we add to this projects coming through collaboration with association partners like Cadenas (3D model platform) or LinkedIn (lead generation) to mention but two, the list of successes grows and grows. Most operations see strong relationships formed with other associations, above all, that of ASSIOT, proving the importance of networking and sharing of strategy and resources to increase impact and efficiency.

What strategies have been adopted within the association and how do you see the future of such organizations?
Very often, above all in past years, associations have been appreciated for their ability to offer their associates services, with special rates almost like a purchasing group; they have also been important data collection bodies for statistics offering organizational support for trade fairs as well. These are all valid reasons for an association to exist, but I see another direction for the future, evolution toward representation, having the weight to be heard by governments when discussing industrial policy, for example.
Together with our friends at ASSIOT, we are working on a project towards giving an appropriate voice to a sector turning over more than €10billion annually, with the technological development that inevitably includes. Technology, is then, another key factor, associates will no longer be sharing a product but technology that will lead to applications and solutions and the relative skills connected. We are no more talking about valves, pumps, gearing, motors or reducers but automation, movement transmission systems, mechatronic solutions and the interconnectivity of components with data management and sharing leading to remote control, predictive maintenance and so on. This means producers of very different components will need to work together to reach a shared goal, whether they be in pneumatics, hydraulics, electronics, vision sensors, hydraulic control systems, communication protocols, software, hardware or any other component activating smart solutions.
In Italy there are both small and large companies working at the cutting edge of mechanics. We must ensure that the sector is well represented at all levels, with sufficient impact, especially in the political sphere. The challenge is to transform our association into the obvious and natural partner when speaking of our industrial sector. This will be in relation to the education ministry concerning training courses or industrial policy at the ministry for economic development, and, last but not least, opening dialogue with other associations representing manufacturing excellence. 2018 will be an important year for ASSOFLUID, the 50th anniversary of its foundation. In half a century, industrial models have changed as have market conditions and relationships between supplier and client, without even mentioning technological change! This has meant companies have radically changed with this evolution and it is unthinkable that an association and how it is structured should behave any differently.

Fluid Power and automation are becoming increasingly inter-linked… What further developments do you foresee? And in which areas can fluid power make biggest growth?
We manufacture essential components for the construction of increasingly “smart” machinery, where mechanics, electronics and technology have become more important as enablers for added value than in terms of performance increase of the component itself. Our products are components which enable these technologies and must be set up to easily integrate into systems. Industrial development is now all about Industry 4.0 and using machine integrated technology to constantly monitor and elaborate Big Data, whether through integrated diagnostics or remote control cloud based platforms. What is less talked about is the need to use this data as a starting point for strategy, this, however, is the real added value when combined with human skills that transform Big Data into Smart Data. When we speak about automation value, it is necessary to consider calculations based on whole processes rather than single companies or products; this is the reason companies must be prepared to collaborate with all parts of the supply chain, who, in turn, will have different skills compared to the past. These will be more connected to application than product as components become parts of increasingly complex systems. Companies able to make the most of this change, reading market tendencies toward “complementary” technologies like IoT and digitalization in general, while, at the same time, maintaining the flexibility needed to operate within a “mass customization” concept, will be those prospering in the future. Associations will need to fully engage their members in this question, not leaving smaller companies behind as this evolution takes place.

Fluid power 2017 has seen results exceeding the already positive expectations. Domestic market growth has involved both pneumatics and oil-dynamics, with the latter experiencing the best overall results. 2018 is expected to see further growth for both sectors, can you comment on these figures?
2017 was a great year for the fluid power sector, especially hydraulics which made significant gains after a period of difficulty. Let’s begin with some statistics: the overall sector results showed positive domestic market performance (+9.0%) and exports (+14.8%), for overall production of around €3.5bn, of which 64% is exported (value around €2.2bn). Trade balance also grew healthily arriving at over €1.2bn. In detail, hydraulics grew 9.3% in terms of market (€1.3bn) and 13.8% in production (€2.6bn), pneumatics recorded +9.5% for the market (€815mn) and +9.1% for production (€810mn). The first quarter 2018 shows an equally positive start for pneumatics and hydraulics, with orders particularly buoyant. The two Italian fluid power sector data sets show domestic billing up (+15.9%) as well as production (+14.0%); with a similar trend for pneumatics, up +10.6% and +11.8% respectively. Order books are just as positive, if not more so. Hydraulics shows growth of +23.5% for the market and +25.8% for production. Pneumatics is positive, albeit with smaller gains, orders: +9.5 %, market +11.2% for production. 2018 is also expected to see further growth, although exact numbers remain tough to predict, growth will be there for sure, in smaller doses than 2017. This may be a stabilizing positive trend, so more reason to be cheerful. Much will depend on the fluid power market performance for machinery in the agricultural, earth movement, machine tools, packaging, wood working and plastics sectors, in short, all the sectors in the Federmacchine spectrum.