Insights from the international hardware fair : Pneumatics and hydraulics as drivers of sustainable materials processing

At the international hardware fair I had the chance to interact with 180+ exhibitors from 30 different countries showcasing their tools from screws to hammers,chainsaws and cutters.

Hardware tools are an often neglected part of materials engineering and yet they play a significant role in their processing. Today the majority of tools are either operated electrically or using fuels like gasoline.

Yet there is a new class of tools that holds promise in materials processing— pneumatic systems use compressed air to perform useful work. At 20% efficiency (about the same as solar cells) they provide a low cost,lightweight, high power alternative to electrical or chemical fuel based machines.

The advantage being that they require no copper,no battery, no electrical connections,no burners. Heat generation? negligible.

The overall system efficiencies can be much higher at 40-60% with waste heat recovery during compression that can be used in industrial drying and heating applications.

Pneumatics in general can do all sorts of tasks that typical electrical systems do. Lifting heavy weights,cutting,demolition, compression. In combination with hydraulics they can easily replace 90% of the work that is typically done by electrical machines.

One exceptionally important industrial process is comminution or breaking material into smaller fragments. This task is usually performed by electrically operated mills but compressed air can drive hammer mills,knife mills and jet mills reasonably well aiding in tasks such as production of fibers from woody materials like bamboo and in synthesis and dispersion of nanomaterials (besides traditional rock comminution). Both are important requirements for advanced industries.

Majority of material operations can be broadly classified into either breaking or making of atomic/molecular bonds. For metals welding,casting dominates creation of new bonds for non-metals, its adhesion or fusion. Similarly different tools are used to break down metals as compared to nonmetals. Unsurprisingly cutting,abrasive and polishing tools took center stage at the exhibition reinforcing the importance of tribology in materials science.

Alumina and SIC dominated but diamond is becoming increasingly important both in low tech cutting of granite and high tech silicon wafer dicing. Diamond production must be given due consideration in the manufacturing strategy of policy makers.

As we move towards sustainability it will be necessary to redesign and repurpose our tools to enable them to perform work on sustainable energy sources. Systems that can directly convert wind energy to compressed air using hydraulics could give manufacturing industries an alternative way to perform useful work making it more robust and versatile.

Pneumatics and hydraulics have the potential to play an important role in the future reducing dependency on electrical energy to drive mechanical work.

Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Strategy Consultant--Innovation/ Materials science/International relations/Telecommunications/Digital Transformation/Partnerships

Mobile/whatsapp:+919654119771

email:getellobed@gmail.com

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Akshat Jiwan Sharma

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