Today, all industrial manufacturers – whatever their size – are migrating their production facilities, manufacturing capabilities, and engineering services to Industry 4.0, or Smart industry. This paper from ST Microelectronics covers IO-Link technology, which has a place in all sensor-based applications at the factory level with the technology’s ability to transform a typical industrial sensor into a smart device.
Many technologies are enabling the migration to Industry 4.0, including safer working environments, pervasive and secure connectivity, and enhanced energy efficiency – the most common trends in new factories. The effort behind all this is going to be huge, even when talking of just retrofitting campaigns where the target is to make the old equipment smarter.
In this respect, IO-Link technology finds a place in all sensor-based applications at the factory level. The advantage of IO-Link technology is to make a typical industrial sensor (i.e., a proximity or pressure sensor in the production line) into a smart device, enabled with hot plug connectivity, easy replacement, ad-hoc communication, and support for predictive maintenance based systems.
