Michael Ference Fluid Power Marketing

Two of the major challenges for all hydraulic systems is keeping the fluid clean and preventing leakage.  These topics are so important that we have launched a website devoted to these very topics. I am thrilled to announce our latest addition to the fluid power network Sealing & Contamination Control Tips.   We will cover all aspects of clean and leak-free hydraulic and pneumatic systems.  So that includes seals and filters of course, but it will also include components and connectors that contribute to the solutions for clean and leak-free systems. If your company makes and sells filters, seals, and all components contributing to the solutions of sealing and contamination control of fluid power systems, send us your press releases and success stories.  If your company benefits from proper sealing and contamination control, then please visit our  new website often and share it with your co-workers.

The month of May is drawing to a close but the May issue of Fluid Power World  is going to stick around.  It will be on the desks of engineers who design and maintain fluid power systems.  It will be in engineering departments and maintenance departments around the country. It will be on the computer screens of our digital subscribers too.  Why?  Because it is full of great fluid power content and is graphically one of our best issues yet!  Congratulations to our team! If you are not already a subscriber, I invite you to subscribe today!

There are many ways to learn.  Webinars are a great resource for many technical people who want training right from their computer. That is what Fluid Power World  will be offering to our audience on June 16th.  Our speaker will be Carl Dyke, our own Contributing Editor and Consultant and Trainer from CD Industrial Group Inc. The webinar is free to all attendees but you must register.   Here is a link to our registration page.   Please tell any co-worker who would be interested in learning more about making the right selection for pneumatic valves.  

Our Hose Assembly Tips website has been redesigned and has a new look. We have added some movement to the site with a rotating message at the top.  It still has all of the great content.  Our "Tips" websites all support our Fluid Power World website and the content on each is syndicated to FPW. Our other Tips sites are Pneumatic Tips , Mobile Hydraulic Tips , and soon - Sealing and Contamination Control Tips. Send us your content for posting.

There is a lot to know for an OEM Design Engineer or a maintenance professional who is selecting a hydraulic cylinder.  There are many places to look for all of the tips necessary to make that selection. Our awesome Managing Editor, Mary Gannon makes it easy for these industry pros to make the right choice in her excelling article titled Twelve Tips for Better Cylinder Selection Even if you are a seasoned veteran in the area of cylinder selection, I would say that this is must reading.   Check it out!

This blog just reached the 100,000 views mark.  That is a nice metric and I hope that it means that readers have found some value to the content of this blog. I know that the majority of the content involves Fluid Power World as that is my area of expertise.  My intention has been to keep readers up-to-date with the opportunities offered by Fluid Power World magazine and digital network. For manufacturers and distributors of fluid power components and related products, I have tried to be informative about upcoming marketing opportunities that we offer.  For users of fluid power technology, my intention has been to inform them about the many content options available to help them on the job. If you have any comments about the content found on this blog, I would love to hear from you!

Here is a link to a more complete schedule of events to take place at the Fluid Power Technology Conference LINK If your company is interested in exhibiting, we still have room for you.   Give me a call at 408-769-1188 or send me an e-mail at mference@wtwhmedia.com It is shaping up to be a great event and we hope you can join us!

At Fluid Power World , we are aware of the importance of hose safety.  We held a webinar earlier in the year about proper hose assemblies and we have written about it as well. Here is a link   to our Hose Assembly Tips website where we have posted about the hose safety initiative by NAHAD called the Hose Safety Institute.  We have had a good working relationship with NAHAD since we launched Fluid Power World and Hose Assembly Tips in 2014. If your company has some success stories regarding hose safety either from the prospective of supplier or user, please send me that information so that we can post it on our website and use the content in our e-newsletter, also titled Hose Assembly Tips.

We have had a fantastic upgrade on our website for the Fluid Power Technical Conference.   Here is a link. We now offer the full itinerary for the event including the sessions to be presented from the stage by our exhibitors and our own presenters.  It really looks great! For anyone considering attending our Fluid Power Technical Conference, please check out our website now and you will really begin to see the true value to attending.  I hope to see you there!

I would like to draw your attention to our list of keynote speakers scheduled for the upcoming Fluid Power Technical Conference.  The dates are June 21 and 22 and the location is the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The best way to send you that information is to direct you to a post on our Mobile Hydraulic Tips website http://www.mobilehydraulictips.com/industry-experts-lead-keynotes-fluid-power-technology-conference/ I hope that you will consider attending our Conference and you can register at this link http://fluidpowertechconference.com

The David L. Lawrence Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh is the site of the 2016 AISTech formerly known as the Iron & Steel Show.  Even though the industry continues to struggle, this is a really good trade show.  It is held in a very scenic location on right on the three rivers. For more information about the show, visit their website .  I counted some 27 fluid power related exhibitors at the event making it a significant fluid power event.   The steel making industry remains a large market for both hydraulic and pneumatic technology with many of these applications and products on display at the show.  This remains a somewhat difficult year for fluid power sales but the exhibitors at the event remain optimistic about their market share in the industry.

Is anyone out there reading this?  If so, let me know. If your company is a manufacturer or master distributor of fluid power components or related products and you would like to have a discussion on how Fluid Power World magazine and digital network can increase your brand awareness while generating sales leads, let me know at mference@wtwhmedia.com . If you are interested in subscribing to our magazine or websites, let me know that too.  If you would just like to give me an idea about what to publish next, that would be interesting. Let me know.

How do you like them apples? Matt, Michelle, and I bagged 850 pounds of apples at the Cleveland Food Bank today on a WTWH Cleveland Food Bank volunteer session!

... and you can be a part of it.  It is called Fluid Power Forums and you can join the conversation by clicking on the icon below. Right now, the discussion is divided into two tracks, hydraulics and pneumatics.  You can ask a question, answer a question, or just add to the conversation.  Join in today and add your expertise, go to Fluid Power Forums  and you can access it from any of our websites. http://www.mobilehydraulictips.com http://www.fluidpowerworld.com http://www.pneumatictips.com http://www.hoseassemblytips.com

I am a music lover.  Check out this really cool video from Kocsis Technologies.  I really like the music.  It is also an awesome video! Thanks for sharing to my friends at Kocsis Technologies, Inc!

Well, if the answer is yes, I have just the right place for you.  At our Fluid Power Technology Conference in June , we will have several seminar sessions about cylinders: RFID for Tie Rod Cylinders SIL3 Certification - NFPA Hydraulic Cylinder Solutions for Safety Roadmap to an Application Specific Hydraulic Cylinder High Temp NFPA Hydraulic Cylinder Solutions We have a lot more to offer our attendees as well.  I will be posting more information about that in coming posts. For now, if hydraulic cylinders are used in your OEM designs or on the machines you maintain, or if you just need to learn more about hydraulic cylinders, come to the Fluid Power Technology Conference in June at MSOE!

I thank the team of people here at WTWH Media LLC who are working diligently to launch the first ever Fluid Power Technology Conference (I got it right) taking place at the Milwaukee School of Engineering on June 21 and 22.   Register here It has been a great experience to get an in-person event kicked off.  It helps a lot that we have the support of MSOE and some really great content to present.  Thanks to the staff at MSOE who have been so supportive of this effort.  MSOE Rocks! If you are considering joining us but have not yet registered, please do so and you will not be disappointed.

I just realized that I may have made a mistake repeatedly.. 2016 is the first year for our brand new event called the Fluid Power Technology Conference In my eagerness to talk about and promote this event, which I really believe in, I may have referred to it repeatedly as Technical Conference vs. Technology Conference.  If you have seen it that way, I apologize for the confusion.  Either way, it remains a fantastic opportunity for our exhibitors and for our audience. I hope you will join us there!  at the Fluid Power Technology Conference.  Mistakes corrected, I hope.

As you may know, Fluid Power World  publishes four and soon five e-newsletters every month including Fluid Power Direct, Pneumatic Tips, Mobile Hydraulic Tips, and Hose Assembly Tips.  Soon we will offer Sealing & Contamination Control Tips. We have improved the content of our e-newsletters simply by increasing the content that we use on the right-hand side.  Even though our e-newsletters are nearly always sold out because of the number of ads now running, we resist temptation now to place ads on the right-hand side.  Instead, we use information submitted for our magazine and websites and directly for publication in our e-newsletters.  Having said that, let me assure you that the content from our advertising is excellent also.  We have very informative product information in every ad.  With our change in format though, we are now able to offer longer articles on the right-hand side of our e-newsletters. I believe that this new fo...

Why do you want to connect with people anyway?  Well, for many reasons not the least of which it makes life so much more interesting.  If you are the type of person who wishes that you could interact better with people, who sees others interacting in social settings that are attractive to you, then this is for you.  Connecting and interacting is a gift for some.  Having an outgoing nature and a gift for gab comes easy for many people and they can use this gift to their advantage. If you don't have it, you can acquire some degree of skill interacting and networking if you choose to work at it.  Another great audio program that I have listened to repeatedly is by author and trainer Leil Lownes.   62 Tips on Connecting With Anyone  is full of great suggestions on how you can improve your interpersonal skills and begin connecting with other people in a very positive way right away.  However, this type of training is again part of your lifelong educa...

... but you can still register today for the 2016 Fluid Power Technology Conference register now It offers a lot to everyone in attendance and I personally invite you to register and attend. I hope to see you there!

In the industry defined as the Fluid Power Industry, there are many good and nice people.  I was reminded of that as I recently attended the NAHAD Annual Meeting and Convention that is attended by many hydraulic and pneumatic hose and fitting people. There are many opportunities to network with people including NAHAD, NFPA, FPDA, and the many trade shows and I am always reminded at these events of how nice the people in the industry are.  I am grateful for the opportunity to work with them. At the NAHAD meeting, there were many fluid power professionals there representing lines of hose, fittings, couplings, crimpers and more.  At the NFPA and FPDA meetings, there are people from all areas of fluid power technology who are equally pleasant to work with. This is a fun industry!

... for the 2016 Fluid Power Technical Conference being held at the Milwaukee School of Engineering on June 21 and 22.   Register If you are interested in receiving fluid power lessons from experts, register today and attend our Fluid Power Technical Conference in June.  For full information, please visit our website  http://fluidpowertechconference.com In the unique format that we have planned, there will be exhibits from fluid power component manufacturers and distributors surrounding the conference room with the audience in the center.  The seminar sessions will be given from the stage with plenty of time for Q and A and networking.  We will feed you breakfast and lunch on the second day and a reception at the end of the first day. We hope to see you there.

The 2016 NAHAD Annual Meeting and Convention got underway yesterday at the beautiful Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, CO.  It it the 32nd annual event and it started with the Opening Session presided over by outgoing president, Jim Reilly. Congratulations to Jim on an excellent term as president of the Association.  He is succeeded by Skip Bruce who was introduced on Sunday as the incoming President. The Association for Hose and Accessories Distribution hosts hundreds of delegates every year consisting of distributors, manufacturers, associates, and affiliates.  The event returns to the Broadmoor 10 years since the last meeting at this unique resort. The first full day of activities at the annual convention includes sessions of the UID, University in a Day with three concurrent sessions including Inside Sales, Know More! Relationships, and Improving the Bottom Line.  Those were the morning sessions.  In the afternoon, NAHAD featured V...