Bochum, Germany, April 26, 2011 – This year 24% of the investigated machine-builders intend to change the control technology at the machines.
The changes of the machine-builders mean compared with the previous year that the technology change of the control technology at the machines is coming back again, however, subdued and focused.
Already for 10 years Quest TechnoMarketing has been tracing the annual technology changes according to the planning of the machine-builders publishing the results annually under the title „What the machine-builders want to change in the automation technology this year“.
So it showed up in the previous year that the technology change of the control technology at the machines had nearly come to halt. The crisis year 2009 and afterwards the strongly increasing incoming orders had prompted the machine-builders not to switch to other control technologies but to adjust or to improve the current control technology at the machines – so stability or fine-tuning became popular.
In regard to the technology change at the machines Quest TechnoMarketing differentiates three directions: substitution, new use and stability of a technology. Substitutes e.g. the PC the PLC at the machine, a new use of the PC while a substitution of the PLC are taking place. Stability or fine-tuning occurs if e.g. two small PLC detach one large PLC at the machine.
Now we highlight the aspect of the new use of a technology. The technology change in the control technology is coming back subdued this year because the new use is very low with four out of seven control technologies as the diagram shows. So microprocessor control, CNC, PLC and contactor-based control technology show a new use of only 20% and less.
However, with three technologies the new use dominates i.e. the change to these technologies. These are the integrated control platform, the operator panel with integrated control system and the PC-based control. These three technologies have something in common – they are integrated technologies.
So this year the technology change in the control technology is happening subdued and focused on integrated control technologies.
The link to the article in the Quest Trend Magazine is given below.
The article is published in English and German languages.
Publishing these trends the Quest Trend Magazine makes the machine-builders’ decisions easier. Now the machine-builders can compare their intended changes with the trends in their own sector confirming or adjusting their intentions.
The suppliers of automation technology are learning beyond their constituency, which changes in control technologies the machinery industry as a whole is aiming this year. This enables the suppliers to meet the demand trends in time and purposefully.
The trends from the users’ point of view are based on the new market survey by Quest TechnoMarketing, Bochum, London, with the title „What the machine-builders want to change in the automation technology 2011“. This new Quest study is representative since it covers 38% of the companies in the machinery industry in 10 sectors with 100 and more employees. The study was accomplished in January/February 2011 containing 57 pages. Highlights, table of contents and budget of this study is presented on http://www.qtm.de/en/headlines.html.
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