If you are on the fence about particular safety technologies, knowing which ones are currently safeguarding the most machines could help you make a decision about what specific technologies you might want to consider installing on and around machinery.

Findings in “Global Markets for Machine Automatic Safeguarding Components and Equipment,” a new white paper from Venture Development Corp., are based on a recently completed worldwide market study on machine automatic safeguarding components and equipment. The report provides data on product types and features, geographic markets, applications and industries, user needs, and competitors. It shows 2007 and forecasts 2012 worldwide shipments of machine automatic safeguarding products by major product classes.

Selected results detailed in the report include:

• The largest dollar volume shipments of presence-sensing sensors are in light curtains. The forecast shipment growth rate for these is also the highest. Laser scanners were in second place. Lowest shipment growth rates are forecast for contact safety mat and edge products, being displaced in applications by non-contact optoelectronic, light curtain, and laser scanner products.
• Among safety controllers/modules/relays, the largest shipments are electromechanical single-function relays. Higher growth rates are forecast for configurable and programmable types, modular relay systems, and solid state-single function types, but the forecast shipment growth rate for the solid state-single function type is below average.
• Over half the worldwide shipments of safety PLCs in 2007 were of those integrated with machine controllers. This segment is forecast to have the highest worldwide shipment growth rate of all the products under study.

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