Most machine-builders using IO-Link are really content with it. The use of IO-Link will boost until 2016. These are some results of the new Quest study, represented in the Quest Trend Magazine.
In 2007 1% of the machine-builders used IO-Link and 13% at the end of 2013. By 2016 47% of the machine-builders intending to use IO-Link, i.e. nearly each second one! That means almost a triple increase in the next three years.
Also the use of IO-Link at the machines is to expand. The number of machines with IO-Link will grow more strongly than that of the machine production by 15% to 2016.
Finally the current users aim for the future to implement much more sensors with IO-Link per machine.
What is the security for the fact that IO-Link will win more users and will intensified be implemented at the machines in the future? It is the unified satisfaction the current users show with IO-Link.
The possible benefit of IO-Link was comprehensively highlighted by nine aspects of use in the interviews.
More than 90% of the users are content with the four benefits „fieldbus-independent connection”, “three-core standard cable”, “condition-based maintenance and reduced control cabinet”.
More than 80% of the users are content with the benefit of the unscreened cable as well as with the feature that the IO link master stores the sensor parameters.
With the assigning of the sensor parameters through the control system, the sensor smart profile and IO-Link’s downward compatibility for binary sensors over 70% of the users are satisfied.
Furthermore 13% of the users completed cost savings through IO-Link. So a machine tool builder detected on his own cost savings by 30%:
„The first crucial point is the reduction of the installation expenses, combined with cost reduction. We estimate the cost reduction with 30%. These 30% are a mix for more expensive hardware, reduced installation costs and saving regarding the coworkers’ work times. On the one hand the cost saving is not always immediately apparent for a procurement manager as he is only looking at the prices. At first all field bus systems are more expensive than the discrete wiring. On the other hand just the mix of work time for installation and startup together with the material costs reduces total costs to 30%.“
„Less wiring effort, less interference sources, cost savings“ — this statement, based on his experiences, provided a machine-builder producing textile machines. These benefits are at the same time those three benefits users of IO-Link concentrated three quarters of their benefit denominations.
Quest TechnoMarketing interviewed nearly 200 companies, i.e. 30% of the machine-builders in 10 important sectors of the machinery industry with 100 and more employees. This relatively high portion provides representative results having been concentrated to detailed trends for the future until 2016 on 80 pages.
The article in the Quest Trend Magazine about IO-Link is available on http://www.quest-trendmagazine.com/en/machinery-industry/automation/sensors/io-link-in-the-machinery-industry-until-2016.html.
