Sensors are not only used in industrial applications, but they are used widely around the world, in our everyday lives.
Sit back, close your eyes, and think. “What would the world be like, without Sensors?”
Just to name a few applications on things we commonly come across: Our mobile phones have light sensors; automated car parks have proximity sensors; thermometers have temperature sensors; cameras have motion sensors; smart watches have accelerometers; cars have pressure sensors etc.
The Internet of Things is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. IoT could be anywhere and everywhere nowadays, ranging from daily household products such as refrigerators, to life saving products such as heart rate monitors. This blog article will let us understand the importance of sensors in applications of Internet of Things (IoT). Without sensors, there will be no IoT.
Why are sensors so important to IoT? Sensors read real time information, which translates into data. This data will be translated into knowledge, and follow-up actions can be taken. This will in turn result in: better labour efficiency and energy savings, as lesser natural resources are required for manual labour; cost savings in terms of labour, and lower equipment maintenance costs as any minor issues will be highlighted before major ones strike; space and time savings as inventory will be better managed due to automated analysis and reporting.
As good as IoT may sound, there are challenges and constraints which IoT faces. Low power consumption is always a challenge, as the devices are usually not easily accessible, and need to run for long lifetimes with minimal power consumption. We can relate this to having high quality power connectors as the reliability of the connections need to be of high standards. When a connector fails, or in a worse case creates a fire, the after effects will be devastating as the whole plant or office might actually be lost before any fire fighters arrive, due to the distant location of such IoT applications.
In the following exhibit from McKinsey Global Institute, it is possible to see IoT’s potential benefits and challenges across the global economy. With sensors that allow device monitoring on health and wellness, to manufacturers that utilize sensors to optimize the maintenance of equipment and protect the safety of workers. From McKinsey’s analysis of the applications along with the corresponding size estimates, IoT has a total potential economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion a year by 2025. This is an amount estimated to be about 11 percent of the world economy.
With this relatively huge amount of potential in the market,
it is a great time for sensor companies to start working with connector
companies to ensure that the upcoming production for their sensors are of
quality with quality power connectors and enclosures.
In what ways can Phoenix Contact connectors and enclosures cater to the Sensor industry’s needs? As per the following pictures, we do have 3 product families that can cater to the needs of industrial usage.
Our above product families can be designed into various types of sensors, such as:
Image sensors, Biosensors, Pressure sensors, Chemical sensors, Load sensors, Position sensors, Temperature sensors, Level sensors, Flow sensors, etc.
Please feel free to contact us at marketing@phoenixcontact.com.sg to find out more!
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