Need for intelligent data heats transmitter market

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 9, 2004

The worldwide temperature transmitter market, which totalled nearly $205 million in 2003, is estimated to exceed $253 million by the end of 2008, says a new report.

The worldwide temperature transmitter market, which totalled nearly $205 million in 2003, is estimated to exceed $253 million by the end of 2008, expanding at a CAGR greater than 4%, according to a new study by the ARC Advisory Group.

"Increasing need for more accurate field data is creating renewed interest in temperature transmitters.

Industrial manufacturers are increasingly striving to assimilate greater amounts of field data such as alarm alerts, calibration documentation, and measurement validation, into a common database.

The need for a common repository for intelligent field data is being driven by such initiatives as online plant asset management (PAM) and real-time performance management (RPM) strategies", says Research Director Wil Chin, co-author of ARC's new "Temperature transmitter market outlook study".

The need for improved data management from field devices is persuading industrial manufacturers to replace or upgrade traditional temperature transmitters, especially in the developed regions of North America, Europe, and Japan.

Recognising the market opportunity, many suppliers are releasing new temperature transmitter products with innovative technologies designed to meet these new market requirements at a reasonable price.

Despite the hype, there is a considerable amount of confusion regarding how to incorporate the new technologies into existing operations in the industrial industries.

This poses a significant challenge for suppliers in the education of prospective customers.

Despite this obstacle, the need for more field device data is creating tremendous market opportunities for those suppliers who can maintain the delicate balance between technological innovation and cost control.

An example of the change is that intelligent temperature transmitters are no longer limited to "control" applications.

Traditionally, higher-priced intelligent transmitters catered to "control" applications, while low-priced programmable and conventional transmitters catered to "monitoring" applications.

The new breed of universal multi-input transmitters hitting the market, however, has a cost-per-measuring point acceptable for general monitoring applications.

This new development will lead the future growth of temperature transmitters, especially for new plant applications with moderate to high-density temperature applications.

Adoption of wireless temperature transmitters for monitoring applications is also changing the temperature transmitter market.

Even though current shipments are not significant, wireless temperature transmitter applications will soon gather momentum as leading automation suppliers release new products and increase the credibility of using wireless technologies for automation applications.

Wireless transmitters enable monitoring in areas where traditional hard-wired transmitters are difficult to implement or the wiring costs are too high.

Increasing adoption of Hart and Fieldbus technology in temperature transmitters is another increasingly popular initiative driving greater adoption of smart temperature transmitters at the expense of proprietary protocol and conventional transmitters.

By providing an open exchange of data between smart field devices, the adoption of Hart and Fieldbus technologies is encouraging adoption of online plant asset management (PAM) solutions, which often require an upgrade to intelligent temperature transmitters.