Currently 33% of the machine-builders are using Safety Ethernet but Safety Ethernet is being implemented at just 6% of the machines.
That is based on good reasons as the new Quest study “Ethernet and Safety Ethernet in the German machinery industry until 2015“ highlights. Some results of this study are published by the Quest Trend Magazine.
In the year 2010 15% of the machine-builders used Safety Ethernet, further 14% planned to implement Safety Ethernet until 2012. In fact, at the end of 2012 the share of machine-builders using Safety Ethernet stood at 33%.
However, Safety Ethernet is currently implemented only at selected machines. Machine-builders are testing, considering, gathering experiences. This explains why only 6% of the machines are equipped with Safety Ethernet.
The pros and cons among the machine-builders regarding Safety Ethernet are arranged in three priorities.
Machine-builders criticize too high prices. For those machine-builders one outlines: „Prices are too high, therefore Safety Ethernet will not be used comprehensively but only on request of the customer.“ A packaging machine manufacturer supplements: „Safety Ethernet might be more favorable than the conventional Safety buses and easier. In fact, it is more complex.”
Some machine-builders are wondering how Safety Ethernet may technologically suitably be used. A manufacturer of wood processing machines remarks: „One judges the use of Safety Ethernet still cautiously. Experience and exercise are still missing with Safety Ethernet so it appears as complex and difficult. That becomes particularly apparent under the condition of very short times for start-up. By now two specialists were employed during start-up, one for safety engineering and one for control engineering. But with Safety Ethernet actually two specialists are necessary.“
Finally the large number of the Safety Ethernet protocols opposes a unified solution. In this regard a manufacturer of rubber/plastics machines requires representatively: „If we would use Safety Ethernet, a unified solution might be available, independent from our subcontractors, be they Siemens, Rockwell, ifm or Festo, everything might run via one protocol.“
A solution of these critical points provided the share of machine-builders using Safety Ethernet may raise to 71% until 2015.
The new Quest study „Ethernet and Safety Ethernet to 2015, Trend and Innovations from the View of the Machinery Industry“ is based on interviews with more than 200 machine-builders, i.e. 31% of the machine-builders with 100 and more employees in 10 sectors.
The market shares of all protocols for real time Ethernet and Safety Ethernet from 2012 to 2015 are covered. Scarcely 100 statements of the machine-builders highlight where the shoe pinches and which improvements and innovations are expected.
The link to the article in the Quest Trend Magazine is http://www.quest-trendmagazin.de/Safety-Ethernet-2010-2015.241.0.html?&L=1.
The table of contents, the highlights and the budget of the new Quest study are available as PDF on http://www.qtm.de/en/headlines.html.
