Welcome to the Engineering Research Center
for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power
The Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power is funded with $15 million from the National Science Foundation, $3 million in combined donations from participating companies and $3 million from participating universities.
The core universities participating in the Center are the University of Minnesota, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Purdue University of West Lafayette, Indiana, and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. The University of Minnesota will serve as the program's headquarters. Outreach universities and organizations are the Milwaukee School of Engineering, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, the National Fluid Power Association, Science Museum of Minnesota , and Project Lead the Way.
Our vision is to create new fluid power technology that is compact and efficient. This will lead to significant fuel savings as the new technologies are implemented in existing and new applications. The new technologies will enable applications and new products requiring portable, high-power, untethered operations over long time periods.
As our vision is realized, both short term and long term advantages will accrue. Improved efficiency will greatly reduce petroleum consumption and pollution in our economy, recovering the Center's cost many times over. Improved compactness will enable fluid power to perform tasks that are not presently possible, spawning whole new industries.
