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About Us

Welcome to the Engineering Research Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power

The Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP) is a network of researchers, educators, students and industry working together to transform the fluid power industry—how it is researched, applied and studied. Center research is creating hydraulic and pneumatic technology that is compact, efficient, and effective. The CCEFP’s education and outreach program is designed to transfer this knowledge to diverse audiences—students of all ages, users of fluid power and the general public.

The CCEFP is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, established in June 2006. In addition to its grant from NSF, the Center is supported by its seven participating universities and 55 industrial partners.

Our Research Projects

The CCEFP fills a void in fluid power research that existed for decades. Until the Center was established, the U.S. had no major fluid power research center (compared with thirty centers in Europe). Fluid power researchers, who were previously disconnected, are now linked through the CCEFP. A team of 38 faculty—each with distinguished academic records, unique and cross-disciplinary interests, and representing seven leading universities—is engaged in work on 25 research projects and four test beds. These projects are organized in three thrusts that achieve the following societal benefits:

  • Creation of a new fluid power technology that, with improved efficiency, will significantly reduce petroleum consumption, energy use and pollution
  • Creation of a new fluid power technology that, with improved effectiveness, will make fluid power clean, quiet and safe for its millions of users
  • Creation of a new fluid power technology that, with improved compactness, will exploit its attributes in a new generation of devices and equipment—orthoses that increase mobility for an aging population, autonomous rescue and service robots needed in our complex world, and enabling fluid-powered portable hand tools.

CCEFP Research Goals:

  • To dramatically improve the energy efficiency of fluid power in current applications
  • To improve the efficiency of transportation by developing fuel efficient hydraulic hybrid vehicles
  • To develop un-tethered portable human-scale fluid power devices
  • To make fluid power clean, quiet, safe and easy to use

Our Education and Outreach Program

The Center’s Education and Outreach program fills a long-recognized need. Despite fluid power’s ubiquitous presence as an industry enabler, hydraulics and pneumatics instruction is typically scant. But the CCEFP is now transferring knowledge about fluid power and the work of the Center to diverse audiences—students of all ages, users of fluid power and the general public. Some of these programs are focused on STEM education with examples drawn from fluid power when appropriate, while others are specific to fluid power and its application. All are designed as multipliers—leveraging the benefits of working with established partners and/or with the potential to be duplicated by others.

Data on the size and reach of the current fluid power industry speak to the potential for the Center’s impact. The National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) estimates that direct fluid power component sales exceed $33 billion. End application sales were easily an order of magnitude greater since fluid power technology is utilized in a wide range of industries: construction, manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, packaging, and many more. The use of fluid power is so prevalent that improvements in its use, driven by the Center’s research, will have a profound societal impact. Industry has supported the CCEFP since its proposal stage. Today, 57 companies support the Center with funding and in-kind donations. Through its committees and conferences, project mentoring, internships, and a host of other projects and individual contacts, the CCEFP is a forum that not only facilitates knowledge transfer between academia and industry but also a growing appreciation of each other’s culture. These emerging partnerships will be among the Center’s key legacies. Informed by the CCEFP’s research, the Center’s Education and Outreach programs enrich understandings of fluid power technology. But its many projects share in a broader goal: to heighten interests in technology and engineering among an increasingly diverse student population.

CCEFP Education and Outreach Program Goals:

  • To develop research inspired, industry practice directed education for pre-college, university and practitioner students
  • To integrate research findings into education
  • To broaden the general public’s awareness of fluid power through active recruiting and retention, to increase the diversity of students and practitioners in fluid power and research