Cost-effectiveness drives opportunities for the measurement gauges market still!

The global measurement gauges market has limited technological advancement, thus pricing strategy is a key differentiator for companies operating in this space.  Realising this, manufacturers are wooing price-sensitive end users by offshoring their manufacturing to cost-efficient countries in Asia. 

To continue rolling out cost-effective products, market participants are expanding their manufacturing capabilities in Asia-Pacific (APAC), which already accounts for 70 percent of global measurement gauges production.  APAC will also remain the key revenue-generating market, followed by North America and Europe. 

The new study from Frost & Sullivan, Analysis of the Global Measurement Gauges Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $178.8 million in 2013 and estimates this to reach $201.8 million in 2017. The analysis covers height gauges, depth gauges, plug-and-bore gauges, and ring gauges. 

Increasing industrialisation in APAC as well as the growth of the automotive industry and machine shops in the region, continue to fuel the demand for measurement gauges. End users are particularly looking for simple gauges as they have a limited budget allocated towards inspection and measurement tools. 

Nonetheless, the presence of established market participants limits business opportunities for smaller-sized companies. Furthermore, the availability of low-cost coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and scanners hinders the growth of the measurement gauges market in North America and Europe. 

Although established market participants dominate the market, there are several Chinese measurement gauges manufacturers that have made inroads into the APAC market with their low cost products.” explained Frost & Sullivan Test and Measurement Senior Research Analyst Aravind Govindan. “Research indicates that a lack of marketing capabilities similar to some of their larger counterparts is likely to restrict the growth and business potential of some of the smaller participants.” 

Brand visibility is evaluated as a key competitive criterion, which has led to a greater focus on this by market participants through the use of online channels and eCommerce websites as retailing points for measurement gauges. 

Task Force for operator environments

CAN in Automation (CiA) has established the CANopen Task Force (TF) for operator environments. It is intended to develop the CiA 401-based recommended practice for operator environments with human-machine interface functionality dedicated but not limited for construction, mining, agriculture and forestry machines, for harbor cranes, for boats and vessels, for wheelchairs and any other kind of machines on wheels. This includes any kind of operator environment such as driver and operator seats.

The CANopen interface hides the OE-internal networking, which could be based on CANopen or other network technologies.

The CANopen recommended practice should describe a single interface hiding the sub-layered devices such as joysticks, foot-pedals, encoders, display, pushbuttons, pulse wheels, etc. For displays, it is intended to use the network variables as specified in the CiA 302 series. When the deeply embedded communication system of the operator environment is based on CANopen, it is recommended to implement the CiA 302-7 bridge/router functionality. So the vehicle controller can access each operator devices individually be means of Remote SDO services.

Instruments used by Nobel prizewinners!

Nobel prize winners in physics used Keithley Instrumentation
Keithley Instruments extends its congratulations to Drs. Andre Geim (left) and Konstantin Novoselov, scientists at the University of Manchester in England who have been awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their research on graphene, a single-atom-thick form of carbon with outstanding physical, electrical, and chemical properties. In their research, Geim and
Novoselov employed several Keithley Instruments products, including the Model 2400 SourceMeter(r) instrument and the Model 2182A Nanovoltmeter.

Mark Hoersten, Keithley's vice president, marketing, noted, "It has given everyone here enormous satisfaction to know that our products have been a part of a ground-breaking research effort like this one. Coincidentally, three Keithley employees were actually in Geim and Novoselov's labs on a routine customer visit when the call came in from the Nobel Prize Committee, informing Geim and Novoselov of their win."

Award-Winning Research
Geim and Novoselov first isolated graphene, a one-atom-thick form of carbon with a hexagonal (six-sided), honeycomb-like structure, in 2004. Potential applications of this material, sometimes described as "the perfect atomic lattice," include the development of new super-strong and lightweight materials for making satellites, aircraft, and automobiles. Electronics applications may include the development of ultra-fast and ultra-high-bandwidth transistors, innovative displays, biodevices, single-molecule gas detectors, and ultracapacitors.

Robert Green, one of the Keithley employees on hand in the winners' labs when the call came from the Nobel committee, explains, "They've been using two of our Model 2400 SourceMeter instruments and one of our Model 2182A Nanovoltmeters to characterize both the resistivity
and the very high carrier mobility of the thinnest crystalline material ever isolated. Ultra-sensitive, precision sourcing and measurement equipment such as the Model 2400 SourceMeter instrument, which can output very low levels of current, and the Model 2182A, which can measure the smallest voltages, are essential to making repeatable and reliable measurements."