About Us

As part of North Notts College in Worksop Nottinghamshire and as part of the Mining Engineering Dept, John R Savage began providing training courses relating to Mining Hydraulics, for both apprentices and technicians from local collieries.

Brian Callear had now joined the team and we were asked to deliver bespoke courses relating to self propelled pea viner's by Farmech (local company) which then led us to the machine manufacturer, FMC at Fakenham in Norfolk and the next five years we would provide bespoke training on a range of Pea Vining machines. Eventually, we were asked to provide similar training for other companies such as Shelbourne Reynolds based at Bury St Edmonds and Market Rasen Engineering. This gave us a terrific experience on mobile plant outside that of coal mining.

The opportunity arose under the control of NNC Mining Dept to convert a school building at Langold near Worksop to become the North Notts Fluid Power Centre, and operate entirely in the private sector. The team now extended to John Savage and a colleague Brian Callear as training engineers, together with a technician, caretaker and part-time secretary.

Here we are about to go underground at British Gypsum at Battle near Hastings. Around this time we were asked by the SFIA (Sea Fishing Industry Authority) to provide training courses to the UK fishing fleet at various locations. Our reputation began to grow with every successful training course we delivered, which now led us to provide training courses for the greater Manchester waste- disposal authority and back to our roots we began a range of courses at various Gypsum Mines around the UK. Add to this our work with the agricultural industry continued to involve a further range of machines such as potato harvesters, bailers, carrot harvesters etc.

Graham Rowley joined the team at the North Notts Fluid Power Centre and is appointed as Centre Technician. Graham joined us from the automotive industry and quickly applied his skills and knowledge in managing and maintaining the centre equipment. Graham also played an important role in supporting the delivery of technical courses within the centre. Later Graham was appointed as a Training Engineer and now plays a very important role at The National Fluid Power Centre.

This was a very special year being asked by the Royal Navy at Portsmouth to deliver a specialist training course relating to the hydraulic systems aboard HMS Challenger. This involved John Savage and Alan Bell who had now joined the team as the Electronics and Controls Engineer.

It was decided to invite a number of key fluid power companies, OEMs and end users and form an Advisory and Strategic Planning Group to support the developments of the North Notts Fluid Power Centre, the first appointed chairman was Mr Eddie Machin from the Pall Corporation. This was the turning point for the centre as companies began to install their equipment at the centre to support the practical training, and at the same time provide internal training and mentorship for the staff, ensuring that we were delivering courses relating to the latest technologies. This would grow in years to come to be an advisory and strategic planning group of over 60 national and international companies.

The North Notts Fluid Power Centre had been formally approved as a training provider for Rexroth, Parker, Danfoss, Bosch, Pall and Vickers. This followed an award by Vickers presenting the first ever Training Charter to the NNFPC.

The NNFPC had become a self-financing training centre, now employing 4 training engineers and supporting staff. The advisory members provided the centre with the latest technology, mentorship for the staff and marketing support, meeting 3 times per year. At this stage we also became approved to be BS5750, supported by our advisory chairman the late John Spencer who greatly influenced education and training in the field of fluid power and control.

North Notts College had a new Principal, Mr Philip Fone, who quickly saw the potential of the Fluid Power Centre and its support given to UK industry and the inadequacy of the existing centre and it facilities, as demand for its services continued to grow. With this growing potential and demand for training by UK industry, both Philip Fone and John Spencer agreed that a meeting should take place with key advisory members to discuss the potential of a new purpose-built centre.

Unfortunately, the chairman of our advisory and strategic planning group John Spencer sadly died in April 1997. He was without a doubt an ambassador for this centre and everything associated with fluid power education and training. His departure represented a great loss to the organisation. At that stage Mr Phil Hopkins, Managing Director of FLUPAC and the retiring president of BFPA, kindly agreed to take on the role as our new chairman.

A meeting of the principal Mr Philip Fone, John Savage, and all of the major fluid power companies who were members of the advisory met at the BFPA HQ at Chipping Norton. At this stage it was decided to go for a new build and this would be called the National Fluid Power Centre (NFPC). This would become the hub for training involving Hydraulics and Pneumatics and be a collaborative project with UK industry and the advisory members. The retiring president of the BFPA Mr Phil Hopkins fully supported this idea.

The "lifting the sod" ceremony took place at the location where the new NFPC would eventually be built. This was done by the then Chairman of the East Midlands Enterprise Council, using a JCB Backhoe. Present on the photograph was Philip Fone, John Savage and the late John Gray, Chairman of the NNC Governors.

The National Fluid Power Centre officially opened for business at our new premises in Worksop on the 1st of April 2000, and the first course we delivered was for TARMAC.

The official opening of the new National Fluid Power Centre (NFPC) took place on the 3rd of October 2001. Present at the ceremony were Signor Amadio Bolzani, President of CETOP, and Mr Paul Cook, President of the British Fluid Power Association.

By 2003 technical centre 2 was under development as we began to increase the equipment for practical hands-on training. At this stage we began to see an enormous increase in training demand from the offshore oil sector, carrying out training for companies such as as Subsea 7, Aberdeen Hydraulics, National Oilwell Varco and many more. During this same period, NFPC training engineers were busy delivering courses on behalf of Bosch Rexroth at St Neots and extensive training courses for Sparrows Offshore in Aberdeen.

As part of the continued development at the Centre, we introduced a fully equipped Oil Analysis Lab Area supported by Pall Industrial Hydraulics around 2006. This investment would allow us to further introduce the importance of contamination management at every course level delivered by the NFPC.

By 2008, with technical centre 2 still progressing with the overwhelming support of the NFPC Advisory & Strategic Planning Group, we invested heavily into Mobile Hydraulics with the demand for training increasing from companies including JCB, Caterpillar, Terex, Komatsu and Hidromek (in Turkey).

In 2008, John Savage began delivering machine specific bespoke training for Hidromek in Ankara in Turkey.

In 2009, a delegation from Turkey representing Hidromek, the Chamber of Industry and AKDER (The Turkish Fluid Power Association) visited the NFPC to see the facilities at the centre and to observe how NFPC training engineers delivered, managed and assessed CETOP qualifications. They returned to Turkey very impressed. Further investments were taking place at this stage in developing Electro-Pneumatics and Control and adding this to our business model. Back at base, the demand for CETOP Competence Based Qualifications continued to grow and the NFPC at this stage had become a BFPA certified CETOP Education Centre able to offer these qualifications at 3 levels.

By 2009, our reputation had grown with many international companies formally approving the National Fluid Power Centre as their preferred training provider. These included such companies as Bosch Rexroth, Parker Hannifin, PALL Corporation, WEBTEC, Shell, Witham Oil, HYDAC Technology (pictured is presentation by George Muscat, now Chairman of the NFPC Advisory) and at the same time membership to our advisory group continues to grow.

As part of the ongoing services here at the NFPC we offered a conference facility and up to 2012 we ran a number of successful events, however we then decided to invest in converting this area to become officially technical centre 1. This investment and installation of new training rigs enabled us to further extend our Hydraulics training to UK industry as demand continued to grow. However, these rigs were all mobile allowing us to still utilise technical centre 1 for conferences and advisory meetings.

At this stage the NFPC approved by the BFPA as a CETOP Certified Education Centre began taking a lead within the UK for 3 levels of competence-based qualifications relating to industrial hydraulics, mobile hydraulics and pneumatics. This provision would later be extended to include applied electronics relating to fluid power. Currently the NFPC is considered to be an exemplar centre by CETOP.

We continue to strive to promote engineering to younger people and the National Fluid Power Centre provided on a number of occasions the opportunity for local schools to visit the centre. The NFPC became an appointed COVE (Centre of Vocational Excellence) and lent itself to promoting fluid power as a key element of engineering. Today, the NFPC considers its business to be integrated systems engineering.

By 2015 we began to develop technical centre 3, this would become our centre for Electro-Pneumatics and control initial supported by Parker Hannifin and SMC. Further investment in Hydraulic Training Rigs from Bosch Rexroth into to this area allowed us to further enhance our services into Electro Hydraulics and Control. Back in Technical Centre 1, demand for Accumulator Competence based training begun to grow and the NFPC developed its own Competence Based course for UK Industry and still very much in demand today.

In 2015 John Savage NFPC Managing Director was awarded the Joseph Bramah Medal in recognition for 30 years of service promoting and supporting fluid power education and training and the continued development of the National Fluid Power Centre.

2017 was another milestone in the developments at the NFPC. With the support of Parker Hannifin, Bosch Rexroth, MOOG, Yuken Europe, Hydac, Stauff UK, Pressure Design, HY-PRO, Voith and the Witham Group and the expert design of Nick Gower a former Systems Training Engineer at the NFPC, we developed a unique area to support the training in Pumps and Control Systems.

The NFPC is going from strength to strength with an Advisory and Strategic Planning Group of over 50 national and international companies supporting the centre and its staff. At this stage the centre is formally approved by Bosch, Rexroth, Parker Hannifin, Sun Hydraulics, The Witham Group, MP Filtri, Hydac Technologies, Danfoss, Kawasaki, Husco International Webtec, Pall Corporation, MOOG and Shell. All of these companies are now actively supporting the centre and its growth. Electro-Hydraulics and Control is now growing as other key companies join the NFPC such as ifm, ABB, Sick, Balluff, Rockwell Automation and Turk Banner.

At this stage the NFPC was chosen by the RNN Group to be part of the Skills Accelerator Project, this was a government initiative to improve the knowledge and skills of the UK workforce, including college and university staff. The NFPC element of this multi-college project was for Integrated Systems Engineering, raising the skills and knowledge of those managing and maintaining systems involving Hydraulics, Pneumatics and Applied Electronics and Control. This project allowed for free taring to be offered across a particular geographical area and a large investment for new equipment and control systems into the NFPC. This completely changed the training rigs in all 3 centres, introducing an extensive range of sensor technology and health and performance monitoring and the drive toward predictive maintenance techniques. This project was professionally managed throughout by Adrian Hudson, now Deputy Director of the NFPC.

We are now formally approved by the following companies: Bosch Rexroth, Parker, Hydac, Danfoss, MOOG, Sun Hydraulics, Webtec, Shell, Stauff, Husco Kawasaki, PALL Corporation, Torishima, Fassi, Witham Group, MP Filtri.

As of 2024, the National Fluid Power Centre (NFPC) has established itself as a world-class centre, supported by an industry Advisory Group of over 60 companies, and catering to the training needs of more than 300 companies across 27 sectors of UK industry. The centre now employs 15 staff members, including ten highly experienced Training Engineers and Systems Training Engineers from UK industry, all of whom bring extensive knowledge and skills to support various learning and development plans. The NFPC boasts the best practical training facilities in Europe and is recognised as a CETOP exemplar centre.