2019 Sensor trends

News 01/09/2019:At the start of the year we take a look at 2019 trends in the electrical engineering industry. Everything to do with digitization, big data and the Internet of Things.

According to this, developments around digitization, big data and the Internet of Things will continue to be reflected in the sectors and have an even greater impact on products and solutions in sensor technology. Captron also expects increased customization to affect manufacturing processes and to significantly change the way in which industrial customers will make purchase decisions.

• Every sensor is a meter and collects large amounts of data such as degrees of contamination, functional efficiency and outside temperatures. IoT and machine learning will in future ensure that this type of information can be even better exploited when operating individual components and even complex machines. In the medium term, sensors connected in series will exchange learned data and respond quicker to external conditions. Furthermore, it will be possible to supply capacitive switches with external data.
  
  
• Customized solutions will be become more important. Even now, end customers are making less and less use of standardized products. The reasons for this range from personal preferences to CI specifications up to sector-specific guidelines, for example as regards the feedback requirement or provisions for barrier-free use.
  
  
• Customization mainly affects existing manufacturing processes. Instead of exclusively focusing on major projects, many manufacturers must be in a position to handle orders starting with batch size 1. In addition, end customers expect short delivery times. Autonomous order processes via EDI interfaces, which link the customer’s ERP system with the manufacturer’s system, will establish themselves even more firmly in the course of the year, reducing not only time invested but also the error rate.
  
  
• Digital service convenience is becoming ever more important. This can be put down to changes in customer experience: Decision processes do not take as long and there are fewer points of contact between manufacturers and customers. Digital product configurations and online content will at any rate replace telephonic technical consultations to a large degree in the medium term, and enable end users to design their own capacitive sensors as required.

“What will really be interesting to see in the new year is how the main trends of digitization, big data and the Internet of Things establish themselves even more firmly in individual sectors and at customers”, says Philip Bellm, Managing Director of Captron. “Captron is ready for these developments: A new generation of sensor switches will allow for new IoT applications and flexible adaptation to customers’ needs. Furthermore, we are working on software that will make it even easier for customers to customize their product design.”