(Dedham, MA)- The market for hardened industrial Ethernet switches and other types of industrial Ethernet network infrastructure will grow to nearly a $1 billion market during the next 5 years, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study, “Industrial Ether-net Infrastructure Worldwide Outlook” (www.arcweb.com/res/ethernet-infra).
The ARC report notes the strong recent growth and predicts that there is no barrier in sight that will bring this above-market growth to a halt.
The industrial Ethernet infrastructure market was measured in an earlier ARC report at $124 million in 2004. This latest ARC study finds that the market grew to over $260 million in 2006. The report forecasts that the market will continue to grow at a 29% annual clip and will reach $955 mil-lion in 2011.
Ethernet has captured a growing share of the global automation network-ing market, but ARC’s market research has shown that many other types of industrial networks have also been expanding during the past 2-3 years. Growing markets for many manufactured products and the huge expan-sion of new manufacturing capacity in China and other parts of Asia have resulted in growth among manufacturing automation companies.
Some, and perhaps many, of the applications now served by the various industrial device networks and motion control networks will eventually migrate to industrial Ethernet. As machine automation system designs evolve to use more Ethernet-based devices, the market for industrial Ether-net switching will grow as well. Presently, Ethernet reaches only a fraction of the devices that use industrial device networking.
Industrial Ethernet Switches Far Different from IT
Industrial Ethernet switches are built quite differently from the type of Ethernet switches that are found in office wiring closets. Industrial switch-es usually feature rail mounting options that make them easy to mount in factory or field enclosures. Sometimes the switches are rugged enough to be mounted directly on production machinery. The switches also feature passive cooling schemes and are protected against the dusts and spills that can be found in manufacturing areas. They also may use different and more rugged connectors than office Ethernet networks. As Ethernet pene-trates “down” the automation ladder into more simple devices, network reliability and performance become critical in the production process. This is most evident when Ethernet is used to directly control the motion of ma-chine elements, which is beginning to happen now.
::Design World::
Filed Under: Ethernet — cables • hubs • switches