Every physical item we touch on a daily basis, from food to clothes to cars, has been affected by the technology of fluid power at some point before it has landed in our hands, says John Norman, department chair of Spokane Community College's hydraulic and pneumatic automation technology program.

The program, founded in 1976, offers students the option of specializing either as a fluid-power technician or as a technical sales specialist while earning a two-year associate of applied science degree, Norman says.

A student focusing on the mechanical side of fluid power typically will work as a shop mechanic, hands-on with different machines to repair them and troubleshoot any problems, he says. On the other hand, a student entering technical sales or machine component design will mostly maintain company accounts and might work with fluid-power engineers to ensure the proper application of new products, he says.

"We are kind of like machine doctors," Norman says. "We don't have to know everything about the machine and what it specifically does, but all the skills that students get here provide them the skills to troubleshoot any piece of equipment. You just need some engineering information so you know what it's supposed to do."

Norman says that since last year there has been an influx of students in the program, and that the average age of his students is about 27 to 29 years old, although over the last three years he has seen more students over the age of 40 going back to school to be retrained, and even some in their late 50s. Typically, about 25 students graduate from the hydraulic and pneumatic automation technology program each year, he says.

Companies seeking fluid power technicians typically call SCC to inquire about its recent graduates who are looking for a job, but in the last year or so fewer inquiries have come in from those companies, he says.

"Normally we have more jobs called in than students here," he says, adding that with the slow economy, there has been more pressure on students to dig deeper on their own during their job search.

With an extensive background in the electronic control of hydraulics and pneumatics, students can enter a wide variety of industries, such as construction or manufacturing, he says. The field of fluid power is continually growing as new technologies emerge, with job opportunities worldwide.

"Everything uses hydraulics and pneumatics to make it. Everything," he says.

While both hydraulics and pneumatics employ the technology of what is more familiarly known as fluid power, the difference between the two is that hydraulic machinery is automated by pressurized oil, and pneumatic machines use compressed air, Norman says.

Hydraulic machinery is typically also more mobile and powerful, and can be found in most construction equipment, while pneumatic technology is found more often in stationary machinery, such as manufacturing equipment, and is often chosen for the increased speed it offers over hydraulic power, he says.

Norman says the technology of fluid power has been in use for centuries. One of the first applications of pneumatics was in blowguns, and water wheels were one the earliest uses of hydraulic power.

Using the example of a half-filled and capped water bottle, he says he always asks his first-year students the critical question, "Is this bottle half-empty, or half-full?" Norman says the answer is that the bottle is completely full because the air inside, a gas, is considered in the field of hydrolics to be a fluid, since it takes the shape of the container it's in as a liquid would.

First-year students in the automation technology program typically spend the majority of their time learning fluid-power theory in a classroom, and apply that theory through weekly lab work, says Matthew Miller, the program's only other instructor besides Norman.

In the second year of the program, most of the students' time is spent learning the mechanics of the field inside SCC's two large machine shops containing fluid-power prototype equipment. Most of that equipment has no real purpose other than to teach students the basic functions of different components found in hydraulically or pneumatically powered machinery, Miller says.

During the two-year program, students also learn the basics of robotics, or the science of automation, which involves the mechanical movements that pressurized fluids make possible, he says.

"The student will have the background in motion technology and similar knowledge as someone with a technical computer degree or an engineering degree," Miller says.

Most students who graduate from SCC's automation technology program end up working outside of the Inland Northwest because the job market here in fluid power is very competitive, he says.

Depending on where a student ends up, an entry-level job in fluid-power sales might pay between $41,000 and $60,000 a year, while a machine technician might start out at $42,000 to $45,000 a year, Miller says. Most sales specialists earn more than a technician because of commissions, he adds.

Since the program was founded almost 35 years ago, much has changed in the technology of fluid power, and students not only learn new technologies, but also those that are somewhat dated and are still being used in the industry, Norman says.

One of those older technologies is what is called "ladder logic" and encompasses the basic electric fundamentals of motion control, Miller says.

One of the newest technologies being applied in fluid-power automation is called programmable logic control (PLC), in which a machine relies on a computer for its movement sequence, Miller says. Students in the program learn how to write sequences in a special PLC computer program and then apply those sequences in simple circuits in a lab classroom.

Norman, who has been teaching in the program at SCC for about 13 years, says both he and Miller took a cut in pay when they left the fluid-power industry to teach, but that he enjoys teaching his students and seeing them succeed when they are offered their first job out of school.

Norman shared his excitement when one of his students came to his classroom during an interview with a reporter to tell Norman he'd just landed his first job at a company in Boise.

"It's my passion to help other people succeed and to help them go forward in their life," he says. "It's really neat to see them get to that point."