Big Ideas, Real Impact

Dale G. Dietel

Founder, Inventor & Fluid Power Specialist

Dale G. Dietel is the founder and President of DGD Fluid Power, inventor of the CFT Cartridge Flow Meter, and a fluid power professional whose career spans approximately five decades.

Dale's approach to engineering began long before his professional career. Raised on a dairy farm in Minnesota, he grew up in an environment where machinery had to work, problems had to be solved, and repairing or building something yourself was often the most practical option. That background developed a lifelong hands-on aptitude for mechanics, fabrication, carpentry, electrical work and plumbing—and an approach to engineering that remains grounded in practical, real-world solutions.

A Career in Fluid Power

Dale entered the fluid power industry in the mid-1970s and has spent his career working with hydraulic systems, components and applications. He earned his Certified Fluid Power Specialist (CFPS) credential through the International Fluid Power Society and has combined decades of field experience with an ongoing interest in improving the way hydraulic systems are designed, monitored and diagnosed.

From approximately 2008 through 2015, Dale also served as an adjunct instructor at Hennepin Technical College, sharing his practical knowledge and industry experience with students entering technical careers.

His involvement in the fluid power industry has included participation in National Fluid Power Association technology initiatives, technical presentations and industry conferences. He has presented on hydraulic flow measurement and data acquisition and has appeared as a guest on the NFPA's Fluid Power Forum podcast.

Dale is also the author of the technical conference paper, “CFT Cartridge Flow Meters: Enabling Continuous In-Circuit Hydraulic Diagnostics,” published in the proceedings of the 2026 International Maha Fluid Power Conference.

Inventor and Problem Solver

Dale's history as an inventor dates back more than 30 years.

He is the named inventor on five issued U.S. patents, beginning with a patented hydraulic compacting system in the 1990s and continuing with four patents covering the CFT Cartridge Flow Meter platform.

The CFT grew out of a deceptively simple question:

Why can't we measure hydraulic flow directly inside the manifold?

Traditional hydraulic flow measurement typically requires an externally mounted flow meter, additional plumbing and additional space. Dale envisioned something fundamentally different: a turbine flow meter packaged in the familiar form of a hydraulic cartridge component and installed directly into a manifold cavity.

That idea became the CFT Cartridge Flow Meter.

Today, the CFT platform provides a practical means of incorporating real-time flow measurement directly into integrated hydraulic circuits. The technology can support machine monitoring, diagnostics, data acquisition, preventive maintenance, performance verification and advanced machine-control strategies while eliminating much of the external plumbing traditionally associated with flow measurement.

Dale's four issued CFT-related U.S. patents are:

U.S. Patent 11,614,351
U.S. Patent 11,892,331
U.S. Patent 12,535,344
U.S. Patent 12,650,323

The CFT technology has also received recognition within the fluid power industry, including an IDEA! Award, and has been featured by leading industry publications.

Beyond Engineering

Although engineering and fluid power have occupied much of Dale's professional life, they represent only part of his interests.

He is an accomplished amateur photographer whose work has been published in the Mensa Bulletin and various community publications, and his photography has been featured in award-winning exhibitions.

Photography and a lifelong curiosity about history, engineering and different cultures have accompanied extensive travel around the world. His travels have taken him from the beaches of Normandy, Pompeii, the Vatican and the Colosseum to Paris and the Eiffel Tower, Dublin and the Giant's Causeway, Barcelona, the Belfast shipyard where Titanic was built, the Panama Canal and Alcatraz, as well as Australia and New Zealand—including the Sydney Opera House and South Australia.

Whether examining an ancient Roman structure, a massive canal lock, a historic shipyard or a modern hydraulic system, the underlying interest is much the same: How was it built? How does it work? And could it be done differently?

The Philosophy Behind DGD Fluid Power

That combination of practical experience, curiosity and problem solving ultimately defines DGD Fluid Power.

Dale believes useful innovation doesn't necessarily need to make a system more complicated. Often, the best engineering solution is the one that makes something difficult simpler.

The CFT Cartridge Flow Meter reflects that philosophy. Rather than accepting that hydraulic flow measurement requires external meters, hoses and additional plumbing, Dale challenged the conventional approach and developed a way to put the measurement device where the flow already exists—inside the hydraulic manifold.

After approximately five decades in fluid power, he remains actively involved in developing the technology, working with engineers and equipment manufacturers, and identifying new ways to make hydraulic systems smarter, easier to diagnose and more capable of providing useful real-time information.

For Dale, engineering has always started with the same thing it did growing up on a Minnesota dairy farm:

Find the problem. Understand how it works. Then figure out a better way to solve it.