Industrial Operator Interface Terminals Show Strong Growth

The North American market for industrial operator interface terminals shows strong growth, according to a recent study by Venture Development Corp. “The North American markets for industrial electronic monitors, operator interface terminals, and associated software” forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent, increasing from $612.5 million in 2005 to $898.2 million in 2010.

The study says a number of product trends—particularly declining component and subsystem costs, primarily for displays—are making adoption more attractive. These trends are strengthened by increasing demand and production capabilities for these products in non-industrial consumer and commercial markets, the report goes on. By type, the survey shows increases over the five-year period in five types of OI terminals: Web browsers at 19 percent, portable units at 13 percent, PC-based and graphics terminals at 7 percent each, and alphanumeric at 3 percent.

Other factors influencing growth in this area include expansion and upgrade of manufacturing facilities and operations; growing shipments of products to North American OEMs and system integrators that serve worldwide markets; increasing automation of factory operations overall; greater demand for more data as improved factory efficiency leads to higher productivity; more government recordkeeping mandates; and the ongoing shift from switch and lamp panels to electronic operator interfaces.

Source: Control Engineering US