Fluid power 路 Free
Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics
Fluid power from first principles to electrical control: pneumatics versus hydraulics, air preparation, cylinders and vacuum, valves and symbols, pneumatic circuits and sequencing, FluidSIM exercises, Pascal's law and hydraulic maths, pumps and power units, hydraulic valves, circuits and schematics, design calculations and relay control of fluid power systems.
Inside the course
From the lessons
Fluid Power Basics: Pneumatics versus Hydraulics
Ms. Pneumatic
Pneumatic Cylinders and Vacuum
Ms. Pneumatic
Pneumatic Circuits: Direct, Indirect and Logic
CHINMAY ACADEMY
FluidSIM Simulation Exercises
CHINMAY ACADEMY
Hydraulic Cylinders, Pumps and Power Units
Jim Pytel
Hydraulic Circuits and Schematics
Jim Pytel
Lesson frames belong to the creators named in the Credits below and are shown from YouTube.
What you will learn
Read and draw pneumatic and hydraulic symbols and circuits, select cylinders, valves and air preparation, calculate force, flow, speed and air consumption, design sequencing and logic circuits, simulate them in FluidSIM, explain pumps and valves, size hydraulic circuits, and control cylinders with relays, switches and ladder logic.
- Compare pneumatics and hydraulics and prepare air correctly
- Select and size cylinders, valves and vacuum
- Design direct, indirect, logic and sequencing circuits and simulate them
- Apply Pascal's law, flow and power calculations
- Explain pumps, power units and every hydraulic valve type
- Control fluid power with relays, switches and ladder logic
For you
Taking Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics from the United States
- Free in the United States, as everywhere, and self-paced: lessons, notes and the final assessment are open at any hour, so your time zone and shift pattern do not matter.
- The optional certificate for learners in the United States is a one-off US$23.99. What you get for it
- Plants across the Americas most often run Allen-Bradley, Siemens and Inductive Automation; each has its own free course to take next.
- See automation and engineering jobs in the United States, and what the industry looks like in Houston, Detroit and Chicago.
- EDWartens also has a regional site for the United States, for classroom training and local support: edwartens.com/us.
The course project 路 about 16 hours
Clamp-and-press station with a hydraulic power unit: sequence, sizing, I/O and commissioning for a hinge factory
Design, size and document a two-position bush-pressing station for cabinet hinges: three pneumatic cylinders on a valve island running A+ B+ C+ C- B- A- with sensors, two-hand start and an E-stop that exhausts the island safely, plus a 3 kW hydraulic power unit driving a 63 mm swaging cylinder at 120 bar. You deliver the FluidSIM circuits, your own sequence narrative, I/O list, sizing datasheet and commissioning record, and the hand-over pack. The sample document pack shows what a fluid-power integrator delivers with the machine.
Sample document pack, 7 documents, filled in for the scenario
- Control narrativeSequence of Operations: Clamp-and-Press Station CP-1 and Swage Position P2
- RegisterCircuit Component Register: CP-1 Pneumatic and Hydraulic Circuits
- Parts listParts List: Station CP-1 Pneumatics, HPU-1 and Panel CP-101
- I/O listI/O List: Panel CP-101, Station CP-1
- DatasheetSizing Datasheet: Pneumatic Cylinders, Air Demand and Hydraulic Power Unit HPU-1
- Test reportCommissioning Test Record: Station CP-1 and HPU-1
- O&M manualOperation and Maintenance Manual: Station CP-1 (Operation and daily-check sections)
Read inside the course and download as a workbook. The project is optional practice, marked when you submit it; the certificate needs only the modules and the final assessment.
Course content
15 modules 路 113 lessons 路 27h 34m
In order, at whatever pace suits you. Each module ends with a practice task that builds on the last.
- 01Fluid Power Basics: Pneumatics versus Hydraulics4 lessons26m
- 02Compressed Air: Generation, Treatment and the FRL6 lessons34m
- 03Pneumatic Cylinders and Vacuum5 lessons45m
- 04Valves and Symbols9 lessons1h 12m
- 05Pneumatic Circuits: Direct, Indirect and Logic12 lessons52m
- 06Advanced Pneumatic Circuits and Sequencing8 lessons42m
- 07FluidSIM Simulation Exercises4 lessons55m
- 08Hydraulic Fundamentals: Pascal's Law, Pressure and Flow8 lessons3h 44m
Requirements
- Who it is for
- Beginner. Secondary-school physics is enough.
- Software
- Festo FluidSIM (30-day FluidSIM 365 trial) What to download, and how
- Hardware
- None required. A pneumatic trainer or any machine with cylinders makes it real.
Software you need
What to download, where from, what it costs and how to install it. Every link goes to the maker's own site, never a mirror.
Required
- 01Free trial: 30 days
FluidSIM (FluidSIM 365)
Festo
- Runs on
- Web browser (FluidSIM Online), or Windows for the desktop version
- Account
- A free Festo account, used in Festo AppWorld
Festo offers FluidSIM 365 free for 30 days through Festo AppWorld, for use in the web version. After that, FluidSIM 365 is a paid time-limited licence (1, 3 or 5 years) for pneumatics, hydraulics or electrical engineering.
Steps
- 1.Create a free Festo account.
- 2.Log in to Festo AppWorld and request the FluidSIM 365 trial licence.
- 3.Copy the ticket ID from your AppWorld account.
- 4.Open fluidsim.festo.com, log in and paste the ticket ID.
- 5.Start building and simulating pneumatic or hydraulic circuits.
- The web version runs in the browser, so no installation is needed for the trial.
Official download pagefesto.com
Checked against each maker's own page on 27 September 2026. Trial lengths and editions change; the maker's page is the final word.
Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics at a glance
Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics is a free, self-paced online course from EDWartens for engineering students, ITI and diploma holders, and working engineers and maintenance technicians. It has 15 modules and 27h 34m of video lessons by Jim Pytel, CHINMAY ACADEMY, Ms. Pneumatic and others, with written notes and worked problems, a practical project with a document pack and a 15-question final assessment (pass mark 60%). Learning is free with an account; an optional certificate with a public verification code is issued when you pass. Last updated 27 September 2026.
All course factsHide course facts
- Price
- Free, for good. No trial, no card. The only paid item is the optional certificate, a small one-off fee.
- Who it is for
- Engineering students, ITI and diploma holders, and working engineers and maintenance technicians
- Format
- 15 self-paced modules, 27h 34m of video, written notes, a practice task per module and one final assessment.
- Level
- Beginner. Beginner. Secondary-school physics is enough.
- Brand
- Vendor-neutral
- Software
- Festo FluidSIM (30-day FluidSIM 365 trial)
- Hardware
- None required. A pneumatic trainer or any machine with cylinders makes it real.
- Certificate
- Optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion, verifiable by code. Not a vendor credential.
- Video lessons by
- Jim Pytel, CHINMAY ACADEMY, Ms. Pneumatic, learnchannel, Compressed Air USA (independent creators, credited below)
- Language
- English
- Last updated
- 27 September 2026
A shareable EDWartens certificate
Finish every module and pass the final assessment, and the optional EDWartens certificate is yours. It carries a unique verification code on a public page anyone can check, so it stands up when a recruiter looks it up. See it below.
The course itself stays free whether or not you ever buy one.
Stuck? Ask a practising engineer
A free course usually means a comment section and hope. This one does not. Every module has an Ask-your-trainer panel that reaches the same engineers who teach our paid programme: people who commission panels for a living, not moderators.
Pairs well with
PLC programming 路 FreeSiemens TIA PortalFrom zero electrical knowledge to a working, simulated S7-1200 program, for nothing.
PLC programming 路 FreeSiemens TIA Portal in Three HoursThe first three hours of the Siemens TIA Portal course, cut to end on a win: what a PLC is, how it is wired, a project configured in TIA Portal, and your first ladder program running in simulation. Finish it in an evening or two, earn a certificate, and carry straight on into the full course.
PLC programming 路 FreeTIA Portal: Build a MachineOne machine, start to finish. Take a bottle filling line from a written specification and an I/O list to a structured S7-1200 program with a fill station, a capper, a reject sorter and an operator screen with alarms, then test it against a written record and archive it for hand-over. The lessons are the reference; the machine is yours, and it is what you submit.
Instrumentation 路 FreeInstrumentation for PLC EngineersThe half of the loop that is not code. Follow one measurement from the transmitter in the field, down the 4-20 mA loop, into the analog card, through NORM_X and SCALE_X into engineering units, out again to a valve, and back to the control room when the reading is wrong.More free courses: Free pneumatics and hydraulics course 路 Free maintenance and reliability courses
Learning paths with this course
- Electrical and mechanical fundamentals 路 4 coursesBefore the PLC: the electrical basics a technician works by, motor control with contactors and starters, pneumatics and hydraulics, and the control panel that holds it all. The base every automation engineer stands on.
Learner reviews
No reviews yet
Reviews here are written only by learners who have finished every module of Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics, and they are published exactly as written. Finish the course and yours will be the first.
Common questions
Is this for mechanical or electrical people?
Both. It starts with air and oil and ends with the relay ladders that control them, which is exactly the boundary maintenance teams work on.
Do I need FluidSIM?
Festo's 30-day FluidSIM 365 trial is enough for the simulation module; the rest of the course needs nothing installed.
How much maths?
Force, area, flow and power: multiplication and division with units.
Is the Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics course really free?
Yes. Every module, practice task and assessment. You create an account so your progress is saved and the assessments can be marked. The certificate is the only paid item, and only if you want it.
What certificate do I get, and is it a vendor qualification?
An EDWartens Certificate of Completion, issued when you pass the final assessment, with a verification code anyone can check. It is not a vendor credential and is never described as one.
Who made the video lessons in the Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics course?
The creators named in the Credits block at the foot of this page, on their own YouTube channels. EDWartens did not make the videos and the creators are not affiliated with EDWartens. What EDWartens wrote is the study plan, the notes, the practice tasks and the assessments.
How long does the Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics course take?
Plan on about 35 hours in all, including the video lessons, notes and practice tasks. It is self-paced, so you work through the fifteen modules at your own speed.
What you walk away with
Your certificate for Industrial Pneumatics and Hydraulics
Finish the course, pass the final, and this is the document with your name on it.
Verifiable by anyone
Adds to LinkedIn in one click
QR code on the certificate
Names what you can do
A permanent link
Earned, not attended
Learning is free. The certificate is optional.
Add it now and pay only when you have finished the course, or come back for it later. One-off, US$23.99, with a receipt.
Issued by EDWartens, the training division of Wartens, as a Certificate of Completion for this self-paced course. Sold by Wartens Ltd (England and Wales). It is not a vendor certification, a university award or a CPD-accredited activity, and it does not certify competence on live equipment. Delivered electronically; see the refund policy.
Credits
Who made the video lessons
The video lessons in this course were created by the people below, not by EDWartens. Every lesson streams from its creator's own YouTube channel; EDWartens neither hosts nor sells that footage, and the creators are not affiliated with EDWartens and do not endorse this course. What EDWartens wrote is the study plan, the notes, the practice tasks and the assessments.
- Jim Pytelthe hydraulics and electrical control of hydraulic systems lectures
- CHINMAY ACADEMYthe hydraulic and pneumatic circuits course
- Ms. Pneumaticthe basic pneumatic system training animations
- learnchannela lesson in "Compressed Air: Generation, Treatment and the FRL"
- Compressed Air USA2 lessons in "Compressed Air: Generation, Treatment and the FRL"
If you are one of these creators and would like a lesson removed or credited differently, write to info@wartens.com.