So the process industries have begun to feel the need to reduce plant downtime through real-time knowledge sharing and high-speed communication protocol. This is a conclusion of a new report from Frost & Sullivan, the Strategic Analysis of the European Industrial Ethernet Market. It finds that the process industries now require intelligent devices that extend location-independent control over other automation components to facilitate rapid information recovery and immediate response as well as optimise asset utilisation of the plant.
However, implementing sophisticated information systems entails the deployment of a vast array of devices across the plant, which, in turn, necessitates seamless data flow across different modules of the process infrastructure. This can call for some pretty complex connectivity, but that can be simplified by using a high-speed open system and a central network – and Ethernet fits the bill perfectly.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan (http://www.industrialautomation.frost.com/), Strategic Analysis of European Industrial Ethernet Market, finds that market is expected to earn revenues of $307.12 million by 2015. The study provides deep insights into different industrial Ethernet protocol such as Modbus transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), Profinet, Ethernet IP, EtherCAT, Ethernet PowerLink and other protocols.
Ethernet offers all the benefits of a common platform across a wide range of enterprise applications and process devices, simplifying data sharing, lowering costs and reducing cabling requirements. It also makes it far simpler to implement the predictive maintenance strategies that are becoming so important. Further, industrial Ethernet allows the system to be connected to the plants’ intranet, where information from various plants can be accessed across different facilities and information can be quickly transmitted even across diverse geographies.
I guess what’s really needed now is an education job, to make sure users in the process industries are aware of all the options and benefits.