Members’ News
30 Oct 2018
Sunderland-based Hydraulic Offshore Supplies (HOS) has strengthened its team with the appointment of a new Project Engineer, as part of its ambitious growth plan. HOS is a specialist supplier of hydraulic materials such as tube, fittings, industrial hose, pipeline materials and a manufacturer of hose assemblies to a range of sectors, including marine, offshore, automotive, nuclear, water, and food and beverage.
Geoff Hayes has been appointed to oversee the businesses’ engineering projects, leading on the design and build of new systems, as well as providing general engineering support. As part of his new role, Geoff will also be customer focused, supporting clients with a diverse range of projects including system new builds and improving machine and equipment efficiencies of aging assets.
Geoff has extensive knowledge of the hydraulic and engineering industries, having previously worked at companies including Voith Engineering, Subsea Innovation, and DeepOcean. Speaking of his appointment, Geoff said: “Hydraulic Offshore Supplies is renowned for providing high calibre hydraulic products, and I am therefore pleased to be joining the team. Having worked in the hydraulic and engineering industries for many years, I am confident that I can use my skills and experience to further develop the company’s excellent reputation.”
Eaton Hydraulics invests heavily in a new state of the art training facility at its Havant location
BFPA member and power management company 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. The facility offers hands on training for systems and products and the new facility represents Eaton’s commitment to industry education.
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.
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 Association) has pioneered a set of ‘Minimum Education Recommendations for Hydraulics’, which the Eaton hydraulics Training Centre will fully support.
Do you have a company news story we could feature?
BFPA would like to help publicise our BFPA and BFPDA members’ company news (free of charge to members) in our newsletter and / or on our website news page and want to feature more news stories from our BFPA and BFPDA members. Each news item will be set alongside a photo / logo / image (which you would ideally supply) and archived by date. We may also be able to publish on our news pages or send out to a wider media list as well on your behalf.
We would love to hear from you if you have any suitable UK fluid power industry news stories such as:
- Senior staff appointments
- New buildings being opened
- Awards being won / presented
- New industry sales partners announced
- New acquisitions / alliances etc.
- Innovative or unusual projects or case studies
Please send any news items to Sarah Gardner sarah@bfpa.co.uk – we look forward to hearing from you soon!