for this textbook came to the mind in the summer of 2003. At that time, as junior researchers at the University of Parma in Italy, the authors were tasked to learn more about hydraulic technology and gather material for a new course to be added to the mechanical engineering program.
Emilia Romagna in northern Italy, where Parma is located, is home to many proficient hydraulics manufacturers. To better connect with the surrounding industries, the Engineering Department of the University of Parma began teaching and doing research on hydraulics, a topic that was missing in the course offering.
The authors were challenged with preparing a material suitable for a college‐level class and at the same time advertising the research capabilities of the university laboratory among the local fluid power companies.
After spending several hours online and in libraries searching for educational materials in fluid power, the authors immediately realized the absence of well‐structured textbooks explaining the state‐of‐the‐art of hydraulic technology. At the same time, by also interviewing hydraulic engineers in the workforce, they discovered how most knowledge on hydraulics seemed to belong to a restricted elite who learned through years of experience. This knowledge had been passed along within the same companies as a proprietary know‐how, a kind of tribal knowledge.
Thanks to the “freedom of learning” allowed to young scholars in Italy, the authors started researching through existing literature and contacting Italian and international academic professors. Each book they had the chance to read and every class they could attend seemed to be focused only on certain aspects of hydraulics. Therefore, the authors started putting together different bits and pieces of a large collage, spending countless hours researching and animatedly debating on how to connect the dots.
The more their work was expanding, the more passionate they had become about hydraulics or better yet, “hydraulic fluid power.” They quickly realized how this discipline has a huge technical implication and it often falls under the radar of many engineering departments. But it also is a very complex technology, which embraces bits and pieces of several other disciplines: structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, electrical engineering, control systems, product design, and others.
The authors also realized the difficulty to teach hydraulics, and the lack of structured teaching material was also probably the root cause for the decline in academic interest for fluid power. In fact, universities preferred to focus the attention on other technologies such as electronic controls and electric drives, which are more structured disciplines and benefit from the abundance of educational materials.
The idea for this textbook came to the mind in the summer of 2003. At that time, as junior researchers at the University of Parma in Italy, the authors were tasked to learn more about hydraulic technology and gather material for a new course to be added to the mechanical engineering program.
Emilia Romagna in northern Italy, where Parma is located, is home to many proficient hydraulics manufacturers. To better connect with the surrounding industries, the Engineering Department of the University of Parma began teaching and doing research on hydraulics, a topic that was missing in the course offering.
The authors were challenged with preparing a material suitable for a college‐level class and at the same time advertising the research capabilities of the university laboratory among the local fluid power companies.
After spending several hours online and in libraries searching for educational materials in fluid power, the authors immediately realized the absence of well‐structured textbooks explaining the state‐of‐the‐art of hydraulic technology. At the same time, by also interviewing hydraulic engineers in the workforce, they discovered how most knowledge on hydraulics seemed to belong to a restricted elite who learned through years of experience. This knowledge had been passed along within the same companies as a proprietary know‐how, a kind of tribal knowledge.
Thanks to the “freedom of learning” allowed to young scholars in Italy, the authors started researching through existing literature and contacting Italian and international academic professors. Each book they had the chance to read and every class they could attend seemed to be focused only on certain aspects of hydraulics. Therefore, the authors started putting together different bits and pieces of a large collage, spending countless hours researching and animatedly debating on how to connect the dots.
The more their work was expanding, the more passionate they had become about hydraulics or better yet, “hydraulic fluid power.” They quickly realized how this discipline has a huge technical implication and it often falls under the radar of many engineering departments. But it also is a very complex technology, which embraces bits and pieces of several other disciplines: structural mechanics, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, electrical engineering, control systems, product design, and others.
The authors also realized the difficulty to teach hydraulics, and the lack of structured teaching material was also probably the root cause for the decline in academic interest for fluid power. In fact, universities preferred to focus the attention on other technologies such as electronic controls and electric drives, which are more structured disciplines and benefit from the abundance of educational materials.
Also for this reason, the passion of the authors in their exciting hydraulics journey was fueled by a few individuals they had the good fortune to interact with. Prof. Nicola Nervegna, Prof. Gian Luca Zarotti, and Prof. Monika Ivantysynova are certainly among the pioneers of modern hydraulic education. Mr. Renato Casappa is an Italian entrepreneur who, like a modern‐era Maecenas, promoted and financially supported several educational programs and symposiums. All of them felt that renewed interest on fluid power is needed to regain its lost inclusion in university curriculum. The authors feel lucky and privileged for having the chance to meet, interact, and in many cases closely work with these outstanding individuals. The level of the educational materials they produced or supported is among the best available today. Unfortunately, most of the materials created was not in English language, while some were not structured to reach the broader audience.
These are significant motivations for writing this book, aimed at filling the lack of educational materials suitable to train engineers in the field of hydraulic fluid power. However, all journeys come to an end, and both authors ended their shared research experience in Italy. While Dr. Vacca remained in the academia, Dr. Franzoni decided to pursue a career in the industry. However, as fate would have it, after several years, their paths crossed again in the American Midwest, a region that has a lot in common with the plains of Emilia Romagna in Italy where they originally met: hot, humid summers; modest, hardworking people; and a natural ingenuity born of necessity. Dr. Vacca joined one of the most important and advanced research labs in fluid power in the world, the Maha Fluid Power Research Center of Purdue University, while Dr. Franzoni joined Parker Hannifin, a global leader in hydraulics and motion control systems.
From here, the old idea of a textbook came back to life and both authors, during spring 2014, decided to seriously resume their old project. At this point, both authors could count on a much more solid base of experience. Dr. Vacca had become a well‐respected faculty in the fluid power field, with numerous hours of teaching experience, organization of symposiums and conferences, as well as R&D collaborations with major fluid power companies and OEMs. He had the chance to work closely with and be mentored by Prof. Monika Ivantysynova until her tragic passing in 2018. On the other hand, Dr. Franzoni was fortunate to experience the current industrial environment and learn from customers' applications, as well as being mentored by two exceptional engineers: Jarmo Harsia and Leslie Claar. Both have contributed in building the solid application base which, according to the authors, is one of the essential features of the textbook.
The writing of this book was certainly “easier said than done.” The authors spent more than 5 years of traveling between Lafayette, Indiana, and Chicago, to meet regularly, sacrificing family or leisure time and testing the patience of their significant others.
