My Surveys Prove That Most Of America's Technical Colleges And The Safety Fraternity Are Out Of Touch With Reality.

Last week I completed another hydraulic safety workshop in Salt Lake City, Utah. Twenty-eight students attended the 5-day event. They represented a wide range of industries and occupations. 

Industries included; mining, construction, education, manufacturing, power generation, and equipment dealers. Occupations included college teachers, maintenance mechanics, design engineers, sales personnel, and instructors. 

After conducting the opening formalities, I asked the 28-students the same question I ask every group of students: "has anyone in the room ever attended a course in hydraulic safety?" All 28-students remained silent. To keep the numbers accurate, one student had attended my workshop several years ago, so he had received training in hydraulic safety. 

There is no arguing that "hands-on" is the most effective way to learn hydraulics. We provided eight of the most advanced hydraulic training simulators in the world - the Model MF102D-H-TSE's for the hands-on assignments.

The Model MF102's are the most advanced hydraulic training systems in the world from many points of view. One of the most desirable features of the Model MF102 is that they show students that hydraulic systems can be "clean" if cleanliness is a design objective. Many instructors are surprised when they see our hydraulic simulators standing on a carpet without drip trays. One instructor commented that when his students do a hands-on assignment on the simulators in his lab, the entire floor area around the simulators is covered with oil. 

Regrettably, most technical colleges that purchase hydraulic simulators don't seem care about safety or the environment. 

Over 85% of the students that graduate from America's technical colleges do not have the skillsets needed to maintain and troubleshoot hydraulic systems. Ironically, I achieve in five days what most of America's technical colleges fail to accomplish in three months.

The reason is simple. My students learn with the aid of the most advanced hydraulic systems in the world.

Here is a photo of the Model MF200-CAV, which is designed to teach student how the inlet side of a hydraulic pump functions. The transparent components are "windows" that let students see in real time what causes pump cavitation.

In addition to exceptional training simulators, we use brilliant PowerPoint slides, and animations, the best textbooks and workbooks in the industry, and a curriculum that is designed to nurture competent fluid power technicians. If I can do it any technical college in America can do it. 

Here is a photo of a Model MF300-VCLS. This unique training system features a fully-functional hydrostatic transmission.

 I strongly urge safety managers and supervisors to pay close attention to my surveys. The answers would be no different if I conducted the same survey in companies that are recognized as being the "safest in America."

Here, are the responses to three of the questions in a survey I give my students at the end of each workshop:

1. By what percentage did the workshop improve your knowledge of hydraulic safety?

Responses: 39% of the students answered 100%. Here are the remainder of the responses: 50%; 50%; 75%; 80%; 50%; 85%; 70%; 99.99%; 50%; 95%; 95%; 50%; 80%

2. Based on what you learned in this workshop, have you ever done something while working on hydraulics that could have severely injured or killed you and or others?

Responses: 81% answered, "yes."

3. Based on what you learned in this workshop have you in the past removed components, which may not have been defective?

68% of students reported they had removed components from hydraulic systems that have nothing wrong with them. Incompetent technicians cause companies to lose hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The losses don't end with unnecessary parts replacement. Poorly trained technicians extend idle time on production lines, rack up thousands of overtime hours, and cost millions in unnecessary airfreight bills. 

General comments:

"I am now very aware of the hazards I face at my job daily."

"Rory has really represented the importance of safety."

"I want to invite Rory to our plant to improve safety and maintenance."

"Excellent workshop - by far the best that I have ever attended."

"Develop online training for safety that students at schools can use."

"Thank you for all you do and very thankful for your support. I never knew anything correct about hydraulics." (college instructor).

"Rory is the best teacher I ever had in hydraulics. Great presentation and excellent simulator activities to clearly understand concepts." (design engineer construction and ag equipment).

"Eye opener on the different conditions that accidents occurred."

Technical colleges that are interested in achieving similar results are welcome to contact me. Our company does not charge outrageous licensing fees for textbooks and workbooks that teach student unsafe procedures and also fail to teach students the skillsets they need to be competent fluid power technicians.

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