IMS Research projects world sales revenue of operator terminals with embedded PLC hardware will rise from $99 million in 2011, to approximately $148 million in 2016; a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 9% over the period.

The largest vertical sectors for these products in 2011 were estimated to be food, beverage and tobacco machinery; machine tools; and packaging machinery. Collectively, these sectors accounted for approximately 35% of sales revenue. The largest unit shipment growth is also forecast to come from the food and beverage machine builder sector, with annual shipments increasing by more than 5,000 between 2011 and 2016.

Mark Watson, senior research analyst, comments “There are two principle advantages for OEMs using operator terminals with embedded PLC hardware: price and footprint. Every component has an associated cost and space requirement. By combining two systems into one, both factors are reduced. This enables further savings as the combined unit doesn’t require extra wiring to communicate between sub-systems and maintenance departments only need to support one product type.”