When attending past Hannover Fairs, I sometimes came across other fluid power magazines published around the world. I've even brought back sample issues for a small collection on my office bookshelf. (I can hear my kids now, "Dad, only you would have a library of fluid power magazines!") Through the end of last year, I had collected samples from Russia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Germany. In fact, I receive copies of Olhydraulik und Pneumatik every month and sometimes use it as a source for articles in Hydraulics & Pneumatics, with permission of the editor, of course. However, I don't understand much German, but usually can get the gist of an article because the technical terminology is very similar to that of English. It helps when there are lots of pictures, too.
Most of my occasional trips to Germany have been to attend the Hannover Fair in odd-numbered years. This is when an emphasis is placed on fluid power and motion control technology. But this past January, I visited Germany to attend a press event in Germany hosted by Bosch Rexroth. Like the Hannover Fair, this event brought together representatives from around the world to learn about and discuss a variety of topics, including fluid power.
There were a few surprises on this trip — all pleasant, fortunately. But probably the biggest surprise was learning how many fluid power magazines are published around the globe. I brought back more samples for my bookcase, and hope to get others through the mail. I met with representatives of fluid power magazines published in Russia, Italy, Sweden, Turkey, Netherlands, and South Africa. Other representatives were there — from Poland, Spain, and France — but I didn't get a chance to meet them. I also believe Taiwan and China have fluid power magazines.
All this emphasizes the importance of fluid power around the world, even though it still is considered a niche market to those outside the industry. That may be, but this niche market is important enough to many major industrialized countries that each has a magazine either dedicated to fluid power or that covers fluid power technology on a regular basis. And it serves as a challenge for us to try our best at making Hydraulics & Pneumatics the best fluid power magazine in the English-speaking world.
