For the quarter century that I’ve been covering fluid power, I’ve heard about how leakage, specifically for hydraulics, is the industry’s biggest problem and challenge. [See our recent major report on leakage and hydraulics here.] And while I agree that leakage problems are something that designers and users have to be aware of — how to avoid them, how to deal with them, what to watch for, etc. — I think that the worries are a bit overblown. Leakage happens, but it’s generally the fault of the person who incorrectly designed the system or the technician who physically put the components together.
With some issues, people project so much onto them that it’s hard to have real, substantive discussions about the causes and solutions. Let’s move outside fluid power for a moment to a different technology: electric vehicles. I’m not here to debate whether EVs are the ultimate answer to our energy/pollution issues (they’re not). But as a fairly new EV owner myself, my experience the last year has been overwhelmingly positive.
Does my battery charge slower in very cold temperatures? Sure. Do I get less range in those cold temperatures? I do. But at the same time, for my driving lifestyle, it’s wonderful. I plug it in when I’m at home, so I never leave the house without a “full tank,” so to speak. That’s something I didn’t enjoy when I drove an ICE. I rarely have to use chargers out on the road, but they are plentiful and usually get me back to 80% in a very reasonable amount of time, say 15 minutes.
But back to the projection. Recently, an acquaintance posted online about how she had rented a Tesla on a business trip. She drove it for two days before noticing that the car needed charging. She drove to the closest charging station (but not a Tesla supercharger) and realized she needed an adapter. At this point, she had only enough charge to get to a Tesla supercharger with 4% battery left and didn’t want to chance it — so a call with the rental company ensued and they eventually offered to tow her to the charging station.
The responses to this situation were filled with vitriol and drama about how awful EVs were because of this type of thing. I kept thinking: Wasn’t this at least partially user error? Why hadn’t she paid attention to her “fuel tank” as she drove for two days? If she’d been driving an ICE and noticed she was down to E, and then panicked because the nearest gas station was 10 miles away, would that have also been the ICE vehicle’s fault?
Similarly, I think some people like to project all their lack of knowledge or comfortability with hydraulics onto the technology. I’ve heard the technology dismissed “because its leaky” more times than I can count. The cover story in our April issue delves into the leakage issue, why it persists, and what we can do from both engineering and marketing standpoints to better represent this powerful and important technology.
Filed Under: Fluid Power World Magazine Articles
