SmartFluidPower
SmartFluidPower is a spin-off of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, founded in 2018. Our team has several years of experience in industrial hydraulics.
During our research, we have realized that many companies in the fluid power industry struggle with adopting modeling and simulation software. This is due to the lack of resources and specific skills, as well as the high cost of commercial software available in the market.
We have decided to start collaborating with companies in the sector, to help them optimize their component and hydraulic system design with dedicated products and services.
SmartFluidPower Team
Massimo Borghi
Scientific Manager
Fluid Machines Professor at Unimore, he’s dedicated to research and training and has been collaborating with several hydraulic companies for the past 35 years.
Barbara Zardin
Scientific Manager
PhD in Machine Engineering and Energetic Systems in 2008, researcher and Teacher at Unimore in Mechanical Engineering. She has been involved with simulation and experiments on hydraulic components and systems since 2005.
Giovanni Cillo
R&D Manager
Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2012, 2nd level Master in Fluidpower in 2014. Hydraulic researcher at Unimore, specialized in the simulation of components and systems.
Carlo Molon
Sales Manager and Technical Advisor
Master Degree in Mechanical engineering at University of Padua in 2001. He has been working as hydraulic valves and manifold designer for various companies in Italy. He represents VEST software for hydraulics in Europe.
Marco Rizzoli
Product Development
Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 at Unimore. Currently he is a researcher at Enzo Ferrari Mechanical Engineering Department in Modena, where he is involved in design, analysis and modeling for the fluid power industry.
Marta Natali
Marketing
Working in digital marketing since 2014, espcially B2B. She has worked in several agencies and dealt with prestigious brands both in Italy and in the United Arab Emirates.
SmartFluidPower's Challenge
The discipline of hydraulics, also called fluid power, deals with the generation, control and transmission of power through a pressured fluid. Hydraulics has many applications in different industrial sectors, such as automotive, for example.
Italy plays an important role in the field, having the second highest turnover in Europe. The market is primarily made up of small companies who have developed highly performing products, sometimes with great international success, over decades of experience. For such players, a typical product design process consists in building several prototypes and validating them at the test bench. This approach takes time and resources, sometimes making it difficult to compete in a fast evolving market. The use of virtual simulation would change this approach. However this requires higher investments and training, and it is not within reach of medium small companies.
Our challenge is delivering simple and user-friendly tools that can integrate seamlessly in existing production processes. Design awareness, time and cost optimization for new products in a dynamic market is the logical consequence of our approach.