As I am now working from home full-time, and I juggling three full-time jobs — mom to three very active girls, teacher and editor — I am reminded of some wise words of advice that my girls’ teachers have reiterated since they were in preschool. Children need a routine and consistency throughout their days, when in school or not. That routine has become critical now as they work through days without a bell telling them when to get to their next class. But I also see this need for the routine in our daily lives, too, as we face the crisis brought on by COVID-19.
As the world comes to grips with COVID-19, the pandemic that’s sent many of us to remote working from home, we at Fluid Power World continue to bring you the best knowledge from experts and leaders in the industry. We’re sharing their stories about how they are working through this crisis and helping solve many of the emergency roadblocks that we face to keep our medical personnel safe and patients healthy.
What we’ve learned from most fluid power manufacturers is that they are essential businesses, providing the pneumatics used in ventilators, seals used in medical devices and more.
In our Hack the Crisis series, readers can learn about how fluid power manufacturers — almost all considered essential businesses — are responding to the complications of remote working, social distancing, and for many, needing to ramp up production on key technologies.
Clippard in Cincinnati, for example, is looking to hire up to 75 people to ensure it can meet the demand for its critical components and subassemblies for ventilators, diagnostic equipment, and other critical care devices to help fight the Coronavirus. Emerson’s AVENTICS and ASCO brands are also increasing production of key pneumatics technologies for breathing technologies, by using shift schedules at its plants around the world to ramp up production.
Sealing manufacturers, such as MFP Seals and Precision Associates are also deemed essential technologies to key medical device manufacturers. MFP Seals said its machine operators are working hard to meet the demands of COVID-19 related parts that they are designing and manufacturing (or adapting someone else’s design with its injection mold and CNC machines). Precision Associates is also ramping up its production of several essential rubber components for ventilator manufacturer Ventec Life Systems. Ventec recently announced plans to partner with GM to increase the output of these crucial units in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And even on the non-medical side, fluid power manufacturers are realizing just how essential they are. For example, Yates Industries learned quickly that as a supplier to essential businesses, they needed to maintain their operations. The company has switched to remote work where it could and limited manufacturing staff to ensure social distancing guidelines are in place.
We’re sharing these and many other stories of fluid power companies in our Hack the Crisis series, found on our website (and our sister publications’ sites as well), under a special COVID-19 tab. We hope you enjoy learning how our industry is working to keep the world moving and safe. And if you have stories to share, we’d love to hear from you. Because even though we’re all in home offices now, we are still committed to bringing you the best technical content available for fluid power system design engineers and users.
Filed Under: Hack the crisis: Engineering through COVID-19, News
