Eaton Hydraulics invests in a new training facility at its Havant location in the UK
20 July 2018
Eaton has recently completed a major investment into its UK training centre in Havant UK. Eaton has been offering hydraulics education for over 60 years globally – built on the heritage of Vickers, well known in the Hydraulics business.
However, fluid power is evolving as it embraces the challenges and the opportunities that the increasing complexities of electronic controls and Industry 4.0 brings. Whilst Eaton is engineering products and solutions in this new exciting arena, it also recognises the importance of ensuring hydraulic professionals whether in sales, engineering, maintenance, quality – plus many more functions working within Hydraulics – have the correct knowledge to be able to reap the rewards that new smart hydraulic technologies can bring. The facility offers hands on training for systems and products and the new facility represents Eaton’s commitment to industry education.
“Here at Eaton Hydraulics we are dedicated to ensuring that both our staff and partners are ‘fully rounded’ when it comes to knowledge in the field of hydraulics” stated Graham Sanders, Training manager, Power and Motion products, Eaton Europe, Middle- East and Asia. “Keeping pace in a rapidly evolving market can be difficult and we feel that it’s important that companies such as Eaton, who are seen as leaders in smart hydraulics, offer as much support as possible. New technologies within hydraulics can bring many application benefits, such as increased efficiencies leading to reduced power consumption, increased productivity and reduced downtime. In my mind there can be no doubt that properly trained personnel can add real value to their employer’s organisations.”
The new training facility is based at Eaton’s plant in Havant, the key power and motion factory for Eaton, which works intensively with product development and also hosts the quality centre of Eaton. This close proximity to manufacturing brings several benefits, such as a close link between the Training Centre and the design and manufacturing teams working on revolutionary new products such as CMA, a CAN-enabled closed-loop controlled mobile proportional valve and Eaton’s X20 mobile pump and it is a new range of advanced electro-hydraulic controllers.
Catering for up 3 courses at a time, training programmes are based on decades of experience garnered in the field and Eaton instructors are all fluid power specialists. The heritage of the Centre shines through and the facility serves different knowledge levels and training needs. It offers a real focus on advanced electro-hydraulic solutions and products including those manufactured locally at the Eaton Havant plant. The aim here is to take the traditional and ‘plug’ the knowledge gaps that are bound to exist as industry evolves into exciting new intelligent hydraulics. Fully equipped state of the art labs enable hands on training with system and specific training rigs on mobile, industrial and product specific areas, that not only show the basics but also offer advanced in-depth instruction around PLC’s and closed-loop electronics and controls. What’s more, Eaton’s range of valves is evolving to offer Industry 4.0 plug-in connectivity and capabilities and the training centre gives instruction on how to calibrate the software to ensure the new ranges of intelligent smart valves are optimised fully when deployed in applications.
Recently, the Hydraulics industry has made large steps toward formalising the educational requirements of workers within the industry, especially in ensuring that people work safely with today’s increasingly-complex machines. The Education & Training committee of the BFPA (British Fluid Power Centre) has pioneered a set of ‘Minimum Education Recommendations for Hydraulics’, which the Eaton hydraulics Training Centre will fully support; indeed, Eaton’s entry-level ‘Principles of Hydraulics’ course will meet and exceed these minimum recommendations.
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