Continued growth in device network adoption within the factory automation space will be determined by the rate at which networked solutions displace conventional hard wiring schemes, according to the ARC Advisory Group.
The worldwide market for Factory Automation Networks at the device level will decline this year but is expected to strongly rebound in 2010 according to a new ARC study.
Continued adoption of device-level factory automation networks remains overwhelmingly tempered by the weight of current and future economic pressures felt by OEM machine builders and end users, the report said.
According to the report, much of the growth in ethernet-based device networks results from successful competition against traditional serial device networks.
“In some quarters, the growing movement toward a single network technology throughout the plant or enterprise increasingly overshadows the compelling wiring savings delivered by traditional serial device networks,” said ARC vice president Chantal Polsonetti and author of the report, called Factory Automation Networks Worldwide Outlook.