Growth in the world machine condition monitoring equipment market has long been driven by capital investments in industries such as chemicals, petrochemicals, pulp & paper, metals, and heavy equipment manufacturing, among others. Condition monitoring has gained importance, over the years, as companies critically focused on asset utilization and productivity. The need for eliminating catastrophic breakdowns and unnecessary maintenance costs in production processes has and will continue to drive the adoption of condition monitoring solutions across several industries.
One of the few industries to flourish in adversity is the machine condition monitoring equipment market. A traditionally resilient vector of the industrial equipment market, machine condition monitoring equipment has recorded hardy growth against a backdrop of increased focus on reducing plant operating costs by reducing maintenance costs, optimizing maintenance activities during planned shutdowns and lowering the instances of unscheduled outages. In addition to rising competition, increasing energy costs and plant maintenance expenditures also eat into corporate bottomlines and machine condition assessment programs help optimize maintenance budgets and ease the pressure on operating expenses. While fall in the business confidence index, tighter lending standards, rising borrowing costs and the resulting shortages in credit availability to finance new plant establishments and upgradations, all resulted in sharp declines in sales of general industrial/plant machinery, demand for machine condition monitoring equipment has in contrast increased. A key reason primarily attributed, is the growing importance of predictive maintenance programs, especially so, against a backdrop of tight liquidity, which exerts added pressure on cost efficiency and justification of both fixed and variable expenses. Also, widespread postponement of new purchases of plant equipment has lengthened the replacement cycle thus requiring additional maintenance of aging installed base of machines.
The importance of condition monitoring is therefore magnified during tough economic conditions like the present, since intelligent asset management and control practices and strategies will help production plants identify inefficiencies in maintenance practices and streamline maintenance processes. And this acquires critical significance as companies struggle to reconcile the financial drain caused by current plant overcapacity and reduced market demand and still remain optimally positioned to operate on all cylinders when demand picks up post recession. Machine condition monitoring in this regard reduces the instances of unplanned maintenance, which have the potential to increase costs by disrupting production schedules and triggering collateral damage across the company’s entire production line, and time to market capabilities. Additionally, machine failure prevention products such as transmitters and vibration sensors are also seen as a measure to combat price increases, and decline in service levels.
Vibration-based condition monitoring holds the leading place amongst all condition-based maintenance technologies. On- and off-line vibration monitoring is widely used by industries that perform continuous production processes. In addition to vibration monitoring, other techniques used for machine condition monitoring include wear analysis, thermography, performance monitoring, degradation byproducts, and physical testing.
US and Europe account for a lion’s share of the global Machine Condition Monitoring Equipment market, as stated by the new market research report. The market in Asia-Pacific is displaying strong appetite for growth, thanks to the continuous infrastructure development and business expansion in the region, especially in emerging countries such as China and India. Of late, deregulation and a substantial increase in foreign direct investments in Asian countries has triggered establishment of new businesses across several industries in developing-economic and trade centers in Asia-Pacific. The resulting shifting of production bases from high cost developed countries to the low cost Asian countries also bodes well for the machine condition monitoring market in this region. Future growth will also be driven by increased availability of sophisticated condition monitoring equipment that can capture subtle changes in machine performance. Demand for Thermography Equipment in Asia-Pacific is expected to record a CAGR of more than 9.0 percent during the analysis period.
Major players in the marketplace include Brüel & Kjær Vibro, ClampOn AS, Corrpro Companies Inc., Data Physics Corporation, DLI Engineering Corp, Emerson Process Management, FLIR Systems Inc., GE Energy, Honeywell Process Solutions, ITT Corporation, Kittiwake Developments Limited, PCB Piezotronics Inc., Rockwell Automation Inc., Rohrback Cosasco Systems, Scientific Monitoring Inc., Shinkawa Electric Co., Ltd., SKF Condition Monitoring Inc., SPM Instrument AB, The Timken Company, among others.
The research report titled “Machine Condition Monitoring Equipment: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, issues, drivers, company profiles, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic industry activities. The report provides market estimates and projections (in US$ Millions) for major geographic markets including the United States, Canada, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe), Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Rest of world. Product segments analyzed include Vibration Monitoring Equipment, Thermography Equipment, Lubricating Oil Analysis Equipment and Corrosion Monitoring Equipment.
