Feature 40 years of motion & control From Lindbergh to Bloodhound
From serving Charles Lindbergh in the 1920s to developing hydraulics for the current Bloodhound project, over the years Parker has been creating innovations to save energy, improve safety and enhance performance. David Bailey, vice president of operations for Parker Hannifin’s Hydraulics Group, takes a look back at the applications and technology
uring the last 40 years, Parker Hannifin has developed a constantly evolving, and often revolutionary, series of motion and control products and systems that have solved engineering prob- lems across a vast range of industries and applications.
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But the company has worked with interesting applications even further back than that. In fact it served such early aviation luminaries as Charles Lindbergh during its formative years in the 1920s, so it seemed only natural to establish a presence in the aerospace industry during the 1970s, a move that led to work in flight controls, hydraulics and fuel management sys- tems during the years that followed. Meanwhile, the birth of a new prod- uct, soon to become a feature of all our everyday lives, was inspiring Parker Chomerics to solve a new problem. The product was the mobile phone and the solution was Electromagnetic
developing components that could survive the rugged conditions of sea life, Parker Pneutronics was lightening the load for doctors and nurses with ‘the smallest valve in the world’. The ‘X-valve’ allowed instruments such as portable blood pressure monitors to be significantly reduced in size by offering the required flow rate and functionality from a component that was approximately half the size of its smallest competitor.
Today and in the future
As mentioned above, some of our most valuable work has been in the aero- space industry and it is the expertise of Parker Filtration that has ensured our presence at the centre of safety development. Currently, this means a
Charles Lindbergh
solutions that potentially benefit everyone on the planet. In recent years, Parker Hydraulics has made a
‘Parker Hannifin served such early aviation luminaries as Charles Lindbergh during its formative years in the 1920s, so it seemed only natural to establish a presence in the aerospace industry during the 1970s, a move that led to work in flight controls, hydraulics and fuel management systems’
Interference (EMI) shielding, a tech- nology first developed for military applications that ensures electronic devices operate normally in their environment without generating, or being susceptible to, unwanted electro- magnetic disturbance. EMI shielding has since been used in many other applications from aircraft to automobile electronics – in fact, everywhere there is an electronic system.
The 1990s saw Parker Instrumentation developing Supercase hardening, another process that has been a benefit to many applications, though it was in the offshore industry that this one really made waves. Supercase hardening for stainless steel offered a powerful level of defence at sea, where the corrosive effect of salt water has always been a serious threat to the effectiveness of systems. But while Parker Instrumentation was
Design Solutions 1971-2011
heavy involvement in OBIGGS, the On Board Inert Gas Generator System, a technology that prevents the ignition of fuel tank vapours in aircraft. By injecting nitrogen-enriched air into the fuel tank, OBIGGS ensures that the fuel tank vapours are no longer flammable. Hollow fibre membrane has proved to be the most effective solution available for nitrogen gas generation in this application. It has also proved to be the lightest. Today, we are providing engineering
Fluid power in the 1970s
- 40TH ANNIVERSARY SUPPLEMENT -
major contribution to fuel efficiency and environmental quality with the introduction of the Runwise hybrid hydraulic drive, which converts vehicle inertia into stored energy instead of wasting it in the form of brake heat. Runwise marks a positive move towards sustainability that offers more than just a ‘feel good’ factor; the drive has the potential to reduce fuel consumption by a massive 50%. And while we strive to create the world’s most efficient vehicles, we also play a part in pioneering the fastest – our hydraulics are an integral part of the current Bloodhound project to design the fastest car in history and break the 1000mph land speed barrier. So while Design Solutions has led the way over the last 40 years with leading edge coverage of the innovations that solve problems in engineering indus- tries, Parker has been working hard to create those innovations, saving energy, improving safety and enhanc- ing performance with motion and control technologies for virtually everything that moves.
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