Author:
Kevin Parmenter, PSD Contributor
Date
10/10/2016
PDF
Kevin Parmenter, PSD Contributor
The “industrial market” is a sort of catch-all term for applications in the electronics industry that marketing people can’t categorize into any other category. When we think of the traditional market for industrial process control, SCADA systems, PLCs, conveyer belt controllers, HMI – Human machine interface, control cabinets, motor drives, sensors and actuators and the like, we’re envisioning the industrial market.
Among the plethora of market reports that I get every week is The Global Industrial IoT Market Research report 2016-2019. This report segments for example the IIoT industry into four end-user segments including manufacturing, energy and utilities, automotive and transportation as well as healthcare – forecasting a 26.56% CAGR to 2019. This is enabling what is often called industry 4.0
The IIoT market growth assumes that, whenever practical, everything will have an IP address and be on the Internet. In my opinion, this means that security and interoperability will be the key limitations of adoption – and so the sooner we solve those problems the faster growth will happen.
Of course, those of us on the power side of the industrial market will need sensors and connectivity powered by something. And this “something” will include energy harvesting, which is where we are seeing tremendous advances and more real- world applications than ever before.
For instance, the PSMA Energy Harvesting Committee is heavily involved in monitoring the research and progress in this area. Although the 4-20 mA and HART standards will be around a long time, it appears that wireless connectivity is becoming more accepted in the industrial market. Security is key here too.
Another market segment is the off line industrial power perspective – or powering the rest of the industrial market. This market has several attributes, namely safety, reliability and longevity, and, simply stated, we don’t want our industrial equipment to fail since downtime or failures is money.
As I reported in a PSMA Power Technology Roadmap, the industrial market shares the same need for reliability as the automotive market – the only thing missing in the industrial market is the wheels. Industrial manufactures want to see that reliability data and the AEQ standards are readily accepted by the industrial market. So, for example, they want to have a proven component and they want it supported for the long haul.
For the AC offline power market, the standards for industrial applications are changing somewhat. For instance, the venerable 60950 industrial power specification is changing to 62368-1. The UL508(A) standard, which has been around forever, is still required in some industrial cabinet systems. However, when I attended a seminar by a top industrial company, they stated that it’s no longer needed for power supplies, and that only the 62368-1 and the CE mark is good enough to use for industrial power supplies.
Of course on the “big data” side of the industrial market, we will need power to collect and process all the data from the sensors and industrial processes. These applications must also be reliable and will probably use the traditional server set and UPS systems we’re using for other data.
From a safety, compliance and regulatory perspective; the standards keep changing. However the need for reliability, safety and compliance – and keeping the longevity of systems up and running for many years without changing – is still valued by the industrial world. (The PSMA Safety and Compliance Committee is tracking as many of these standards as possible and reporting on them via a free database.)
The electronics industry, which cycles at consumer electronics speed, may struggle to provide the component longevity needed by the industrial users. If you are up to it the market goes on forever if you can get off the consumer products cycle and support the market as it wants to be supported.
