HIGH GROWTH EXPECTED FOR SAFETY PLCS & SAFETY BUS/NETWORKS
23 March 2005 - Venture Development Corporation

A new market study by Venture Development Corporation projects the most rapid growth for machine automatic safeguarding equipment in Europe and North America will be for programmable safety systems (safety PLCs).

The overall machine automatic safeguarding equipment markets are forecast to grow at compound annual growth rates of 7.4% for Europe, and 12.5% for North America between through 2007. However, the small programmable safety system portions of these markets are forecast to growth at significantly higher rates of 22.3% and 30.6% respectively. This difference is primarily due to the European market's level of maturity, as well as its further adoption of programmable safety systems for these applications.

There are concerns about the reliability and safety in the use of safety buses/networks for machine automatic safeguarding, particularly when safety and non-safety data is handled by the same bus/network. Nevertheless usage is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period, as the use of safety PLCs grows and reliability of operations with safety buses/networks becomes proven. Usage is particularly attractive when machines and controls become more complex (i.e., for example, requiring many emergency stops and/or safety gate switches with multiple actuators).

Benefits resulting from use of safety PLCs and buses/networks include:

Allowing greater integration of machine controls;
Capability for better and easier diagnostics where intelligence is provided down to device levels;
Faster and easier maintenance;
Greater flexibility in machine controls;
Less wiring to be installed, fewer connections to be made;
Reduction in cost of commissioning;
Reduction in installation and reconfiguring costs; and
Reduction of design costs.

http://www.vdc-corp.com

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