By Paul J. Heney, Editorial Director
Anyone who’s been around the fluid power industry for a short while will realize how important distribution is—and how it’s been adapting. Distributors in other technology areas may be essentially commodity part sellers or stocking warehouses. They may fight on price, with flashy online ads that wouldn’t look out of place on Times Square.
But in fluid power, distribution has grown with the industry over the years, working with OEMs to choose the right equipment, to design the necessary circuits, or even build entire subsystems for an end product. And repair and maintenance is a critical aspect of many fluid power distributors today.
Our editorial team recognized that one thing our industry was lacking was a comprehensive way to find a distributor and compare them side-by-side. So, over the past year, we’ve been building out an online resource to do just that. Our Fluid Power World Distributor Search is now live at:
Because distribution is, at its heart, a local business, you can define the geography, picking a state and city for your search. You can select multiple manufacturers, as well. So if you want to only see branch locations of distributors who carry Yates Industries and Eaton Hydraulics in the state of Texas, no problem.
We’re also in the process of adding additional questions to the search bar and results screens. Eventually, you’ll be able to specify any of the following if these criteria are important to you in a distributor:
• Service/repair capabilities
• Do they employ Certified Fluid Power Specialists?
• Engineering design services offered
• Hose assembly
• Cylinder repair
• Field service
• Fluid power training classes
Data points like these are critical in fluid power distribution, because all distributors are unique—they vary in size, product lines and services offered, as well as branch locations. This is why we’re excited to unveil what I’ll call the Beta version of the Fluid Power Distributor Search. But we need your help, too. If you have suggestions for how we can improve the site, please let us know. And as companies are always being acquired, branches are moving physical locations and distribution agreements are modified, our data is constantly in flux. Please click the “New Distributor Submission” button on the site if you see anything that needs to be changed or updated.
Filed Under: News
