I agree, Al. It's definitely encouraging to see second- and third-tier automotive suppliers bouncing back. This is in part why automakers got bailed out a few years ago. The effects of financial failure of a big automaker are far-reaching.
It's still very impressive and encouraging to see those kinds of investments in automotive and electrical/electronic assembly, even given the bounceback in auto production. Thanks, Ann.
Al, thanks for the clarification. Yes, I think it's directly related to an upturn in automotive manufacturing and to the upturn in overall manufacturing, not just automotive, since the downturn. And so does the IRF. I saw similar trends in machine vision a couple of years ago, in both the US and Europe: an upturn directly related to the upturn in manufacturing, at about the same time as this robotics/manufacturing upturn.
Ann, I was referring to variations year to year in automotive production. I tend to agree with Chuck that it would be interesting to see how the downturn in production affected usage of robots. I really don't have a good handle on yearly volumes to make the comparisons myself. Thanks.
I do wonder how much these numbers were affected by the automotive downturn a few years ago and the subsequent upturn now. I wonder how the automotive numbers would compare to say, 2005 or 2006, when auto sales in the U.S. were higher.
Yes, it is a big number! As we mentioned in the story, the IRF data says the global downturn in automotive investment in robotics was during 2006-2009. What we didn't say was the fact that overall industrial robot demand is up everywhere after slumping during the worldwide economic downturn. That's part of the reason for the big jump, according to the IRF. My question to you was requesting a definition of what you meant by "variations in auto production"? Did you mean variations over time in the US, or variations across countries throughout the world, or something else?
Ann, I am surprised by the magnitude of the increase in demand for industrial robots. A 38% increase from 2010 to 2011 for industrial robots, led by automotive and electrical/electronics assembly, is a big number.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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