For the 2020 study, Michaela Rothhöft surveyed a total of 300 mechanical engineering companies about their usage behavior and future developments in the areas of communication technologies and Industry 4.0.

© Michaela Rothhöft

The core findings of the survey of 300 mechanical engineering companies in 2020 are quickly summarized: The importance of linking the IT and automation worlds in mechanical engineering is increasing; the associated importance of security is growing. The use of Ethernet protocols is now standard in most companies; independent communication technologies such as OPC UA, TSN and IO-Link will increase significantly in the future.

Is the cloud becoming a must?

Connecting machines to a cloud: Only a good 15 percent of machine manufacturers have already connected their machines or systems to a cloud. More than 45 percent have no plans to ever do so.

© Michaela Rothhöft

As far as the linking of automation and IT networks in production is concerned, more than 90% of machine manufacturers believe that they will need such "Industry 4.0" properties of the automation network in the future. The majority of them expect the use of plug and play and the coexistence of several protocols. The majority also anticipate the use of condition monitoring/predictive maintenance. However, every second machine manufacturer also expects a cloud connection in the future. Communication via OPC UA is the top technological priority.

This expected use of Industry 4.0 means that security is also playing an increasingly important role. Significantly more machine manufacturers intend to use extended security measures than three years ago. The focus here is on aspects such as VPN/encryption, user/rights management and firewalls. However, switches with security are also increasingly in demand.

Profinet is still the champion

The use of Ethernet protocols: To date, Profinet has been the frontrunner in mechanical engineering. In the future, OPC UA, TSN and IO-Link technologies are likely to dominate these statistics.

© Michaela Rothhöft

Ethernet is now standard in mechanical engineering: only 2% still do without this technology. The most common protocol is still Profinet, followed by TCP/IP at control level and TCP/IP at field level. Among manufacturers of conveyor technology/lifting equipment, Ethernet/IP (46%) and EtherCAT (38%) are used more frequently than average in assembly/handling/robotics. It is striking that only 58% of companies that build more than 200 machines a year would like to use Profinet in the future.