Instrumentation industry develops in the direction of intelligence

During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, China's instrumentation industry experienced a period of rapid development. However, entering the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, the slowdown in market growth has become an indisputable fact. In the face of various uncertainties in the market, grasping future technology trends and winning market opportunities are issues that every company is pondering. With the rapid development of microelectronics, computers, networks, and communications technologies and the continuous improvement of comprehensive automation, smart meters embody the requirements of intelligent, digital, and networked manufacturing, and will undoubtedly become an important part of the future development of the instrumentation industry. direction.

Market slowdown in instrumentation

In recent years, China's instrumentation industry has shown a trend of rapid development. According to the data released by the China Instrument Industry Association, during the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, except for the impact of the global financial crisis, the growth rate in 2009 was only 8.9%, and the growth rate in other years was between 20% and 30%. . During this period, the increase in the global instrumentation market was only 3% to 4%. The rapid development of the instrumentation industry in China is evident. To sum up the reasons, it is inseparable from the economic development environment of our country:

First of all, the rapid development of China's economy has made China the world's largest emerging market. Global manufacturing has largely migrated to China, and a large number of foreign companies have begun to set up factories in China. This has created an unprecedented market demand for instrumentation products.

Second, China's new industrialization process, the deepening of the integration of the two, has led to the need for automation in various industrial fields, which has also brought prosperity to the instrumentation industry. The Chinese government has expanded the scale of the instrumentation industry to a certain extent by implementing a series of mandatory measures such as the implementation of energy-saving emission reduction targets and shutting down of outdated production capacity in major industries.

In addition, the implementation of national key projects, food safety, and pharmaceutical safety, which are related to national and people’s livelihood issues, provide opportunities for instrumentation that plays a crucial role in the intelligentization of manufacturing equipment, automation of production processes, and quality supervision and quarantine.

However, with the continuous deterioration of the international economic environment and the slowing down of China’s economic development, such as overcapacity in the iron and steel, cement, and glass industries, various problems have emerged in the areas of wind power, solar energy, rail transit, and food. The instrumentation industry also began to show a cooling trend. According to the latest data, from January to June 2012, the total industrial output value of the instrumentation industry in the country totaled 307.509 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.86%, and the sales value reached 290.936 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.94%. The slowdown in the growth of China's instrumentation industry has become apparent.

Smart meters become new highlights of the market

The rapid development of microcomputer technology and embedded systems has caused a fundamental change in the structure of instruments and meters, that is, taking the microcomputer as the main body, replacing the conventional electronic circuits of traditional instruments, and becoming a new generation of smart instruments with some intelligence. The design focus of this type of instrument has shifted from the design of analog and logic circuits to the design of dedicated microcomputer templates or microcomputer functional components, interface circuits, and input/output channels, as well as the development of application software. The various functions of the traditional analog meter are realized by the unit circuit, while in the meter with the single chip microcomputer or the embedded system as the main body, the programming software, various special and complicated function modules, and the simplified user configuration programming function And various typical application control strategy packages and other modules of software to complete numerous data processing and control tasks. This kind of meter has already realized some functions of the human brain, such as four operations, logic judgments, command recognition, etc. Some of them can also perform self-correction, self-diagnosis, and have the ability of self-adaptation and self-learning. meter".

From the perspective of the development trend of instrumentation technology, the intelligentization of instrumentation is an irreversible trend in the development of instrumentation. The application of digital technology in instrumentation has not only improved the performance and accuracy of the instrumentation, but has also been accompanied by the advent of fieldbus. , for the upgrading of instrumentation, product upgrades and to achieve further high-precision, high-performance, especially multi-parameter on-line real-time monitoring and automatic measurement and control, high stability, high reliability, high adaptability, multi-function, low consumption, etc. provide a huge Power and development space make information exchange of smart instruments faster, and pre-diagnosis, pre-maintenance and other functions become a reality.

As one of the intelligent instruments, smart meters are no longer a simple hardware entity but a combination of hardware and software. In recent years, smart meters have begun to develop from more mature data processing to knowledge processing, and their functions have been developed to a higher level.

After nearly three decades of development, China’s smart metering market has entered a stage of full competition, from imported brands to joint ventures, domestic brands, to provide users with more choices in different market segments and different products. . In addition, from the industrial upgrading, more and more production processes require high-precision smart meters to participate in the automatic production and automatic control process, which provides higher requirements for the reliability and accuracy of the instrument. In addition, the requirements for ease of installation and maintenance have also gradually increased. It can be foreseen that during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, smart meters that are widely used in the field of industrial automation will usher in great development.

First, the "12th Five-Year Plan" or a longer period in the future, although China's overall development rate will be somewhat controlled, it will still maintain a very high level. China has provided the world's fastest growing and largest emerging market, while also providing the world's largest smart meter market.

Second, the emerging industry of the Internet of Things will have a profound impact on the development of smart meters and promote the development of the smart meter industry. In the field of IoT applications, sensor technologies, acquisition technologies and communication technologies are highly integrated and applied in various industries. Smart meters are an integral part of them. They collect data, process data, and perform preliminary analysis and processing of data. Become the source of the perception of the Internet of Things. As an important emerging industry, the Internet of Things (IoT) will inevitably bring about the wide application of smart meters in various fields such as industry, construction and home furnishing.

Third, in the future, China's electric utilities, gas, and water treatment facilities will install smart meters on a large scale, which will bring strong driving force to China's smart meter industry. In particular, the large-scale development of smart grids across the country has greatly increased the market demand for smart meters, which has brought opportunities for the smart meter industry in China.

Fourthly, the development of strategic emerging industries such as new energy and high-speed rail provides a broader platform for China's smart meters. The development of these fields is in a period of rapid growth in China, and the market space is huge. It will be for the instrumentation industry. Continuous development will inject new vitality and new impetus.

Fifth, the food, environmental protection and other industries also bring new opportunities for the development of China's instrumentation industry, such as food safety, atmospheric monitoring, water quality monitoring and other industries brought about by the development space.

In addition, the vigorous support of government policies will also become a solid backing for the rapid development of the smart meter market. The “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” of the instrumentation industry industry puts forward that industrial automation instruments focus on the development of main control system devices and intelligent instruments based on field bus technology. Special and special automation instruments; comprehensively expand the service field, promote the digitization, intelligence, and networking of instrumentation systems, and complete the transformation of automation instruments from analog to digital technologies, and the proportion of digital instruments will reach more than 60% within five years. The "12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Intelligent Manufacturing Equipment" also clearly puts forward the development and application of R&D and intelligent manufacturing technologies for large-scale intelligent manufacturing equipment, and develops typical intelligent measurement and control devices and components such as robots, sensing systems, and smart meters and realizes the industry. Change. On the basis of making full use of existing technologies and products, it will further realize intelligence and networking and form a strong support for the development of smart manufacturing equipment industry. During the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, China's smart instrument industry will be strongly supported by policies, which creates a good environment for the development of China's smart instrument industry.

According to the report entitled "Shipping, Types, Geographical Factors, Applications, Regulated Market Trends and Forecasts for the Global Smart Metering Market from 2011 to 2016," published by the MarketsandMarkets website of the US market research company, the global smart meter market is expected to be From US$4.381 billion in 2010 to US$15.261 billion in 2016, the compound annual growth rate from 2011 to 2016 will be 20.8%. Among these, the Chinese market will play an important role. There is no doubt that the era of smart meters has come!