Introduction: With the deepening of the concept of "Industry 4.0", the global sensor market space has been expanded again. It is predicted that from 2016 to 2021, the compound annual growth rate of sensors is expected to be 11%, and the market size will reach 190.6 billion US dollars by 2021.
Small and exquisite sensor equipment has brought great impact on our lives. In the field of industrial automation, as the tactile sense of machinery, sensor is the primary link to realize industrial automatic detection and automatic control. Especially in the automated production process, these inconspicuous but crucial equipment will transform the data flow into significant decisions.
The global market continues to heat up
With the deepening of the concept of "Industry 4.0", the global sensor market space has been expanded again. It is predicted that from 2016 to 2021, the compound annual growth rate of sensors is expected to be 11%, and the market size will reach 190.6 billion US dollars by 2021. At present, the global sensor market is dominated by several leading enterprises in the United States, Japan and Germany. Bosch, Honeywell, Freescale, Hitachi and other traditional electronics industry giants all regard sensors as the main growth point of their future businesses.
In China, the growth rate of the sensor market has also continued to accelerate. It is expected that the size of the sensor market will exceed 180 billion yuan in 2020. The sensor manufacturing enterprises concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta have gradually dispersed and expanded, forming a regional spatial layout dominated by central cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Shenyang and Xi'an.
The globalization of the sensor market seems to reveal the arrival of the era of big data.

The Internet of Things opens the application scope
The rise of the industrial Internet of Things has led to the development of data collectors - sensors. From the national level, based on the integration strategy of industrialization and informatization, the government has vigorously promoted the deep penetration of Internet of Things technology into traditional industries, making sensors the best breakthrough to improve China's modern information technology and drive the development of industrialization. From the technical point of view, the sensor, which undertakes the task of data acquisition and transmission, is developing towards intelligence, miniaturization, integration, networking, multi-function and low power consumption under the guidance of the Internet of Things.
The continuous promotion of the Internet of Things has also broadened the application field of sensors. It is understood that the largest proportion of sensor applications in China is in the industrial and automotive fields, and the fastest growing is in the automotive electronics and communication electronics application market. In addition, in the fields of intelligent agriculture, intelligent transportation, intelligent buildings, intelligent environmental protection, smart grid, health care, intelligent wear, sensors also have broad application space.
So, in the field of industrial automation, which industries are the key to detonate sensor applications, and which emerging industries will be targeted by sensor enterprises?
Automobile manufacturing: sensor application is new
After years of development, China's auto market has become one of the fastest growing auto markets in the world. With the increase of automobile sales in China, the application of sensors has also increased rapidly. Miniaturized, multifunctional, integrated and intelligent sensors will gradually replace traditional sensors and become the mainstream of automotive sensors.
In addition to configuring the sensor system for the vehicle, the application of sensors in the vehicle manufacturing process has long been new. In the process of auto production automation, the position detection of parts and components has become an important part of sensor application, and is also the link with the highest requirements for sensors. In order to meet the requirements of high-precision detection, high-precision sensors have been widely used in various position detection in auto parts processing, engine manufacturing, stamping, painting, welding, final assembly and other automatic production of the vehicle factory.
Due to the strong ability of the automobile industry to absorb new technologies and new products, and the high requirements for automation, many sensor enterprises such as Turk, Yifmen, Baruf, and Baomeng have listed the industry as an important target market. According to Wan Hui, the sales manager of key industries of Yifu Men, the most popular application of Yifu Men in the automotive industry is the solution of RFID and IO-Link products. "RFID technology is mainly used to realize the traceability of auto parts and the storage and logistics management of auto parts. The IO-Link solution is mainly used to help auto manufacturers realize the remote monitoring and big data collection of production, which are connected with 'Industry 4.0'." It is the industry's increasing requirements for production technology that make the application of sensors in this field constantly updated, and automobile manufacturing has also become an important engine to promote sensor technology innovation.
Electronic manufacturing industry: sensors meet high-precision detection
In recent years, the popularity of consumer electronics products has led to the rapid development of the electronic manufacturing industry in China and accelerated the pace of the electronic manufacturing industry. The consumer's demand for it also gradually tends to pursue the trend from the use level, thus further promoting the accelerated development of consumer electronics in the development, design and manufacturing level. In the face of the rapidly expanding market, the electronic manufacturing equipment is also constantly optimized and updated, moving towards improving efficiency, improving the rate of good products and improving the safety of equipment operation. At the same time, in order to meet the market demand, industrial sensors are widely used in the electronic manufacturing industry to comprehensively improve the overall production capacity.
In the production line of electronic manufacturing, both robot assembly and electronic component detection cannot be separated from the application of visual sensing equipment. Feng Xiaodong, senior product manager of Tianjin Turk Market and Product Management Department, said: "Visual sensors will also become a sharp edge in intelligent manufacturing. The demand for high-precision electronic manufacturing and the professionalism of production lines make robots, machine vision and automation solutions have considerable technical barriers. Mastering core technology and production experience is the necessary condition for sensor enterprises to take root in the electronic industry."
Industrial robot: sensor endows it with sensing ability
In recent years, machine replacement has become an upsurge, and the industrial robot market is booming. In order to improve the adaptability of the robot and detect the working environment in time, a large number of sensor devices are applied to the robot. These sensors improve the working conditions of the robot and enable it to complete complex tasks more fully.
A robot is integrated with tactile sensor, visual sensor, force sensor, proximity sensor, ultrasonic sensor and auditory sensor. Their respective division of labor is clear to ensure that the robot can work as well as human. Many cooperative robots integrate torque sensors and cameras to ensure a better perspective in operation and ensure the safety of the working area; The visual sensor is a camera that can perform multiple tasks. From the detection of moving objects to the positioning of parts on the transmission belt, the robot can adjust its actions appropriately according to the received information; If the vision sensor is given to the robot's eyes, the force sensor is given to the robot's touch, and the torque sensor is used to sense the force of the end effector; In addition to considering the normal operation of the robot itself, in order to ensure the safety of operators, the robot should also be installed with safety sensors. When the robot senses abnormal force, it will trigger an emergency stop to ensure the safety of operators.
"Because robots tend to be miniaturized, and the installation space of sensors is more limited, so in the application of robots, micro and small sensors are more needed. Baomeng takes advantage of its ability to make micro and small products, and focuses on the application of products in the field of robots, so that its high-speed and high-precision characteristics can be fully displayed in the robot arm." Song Xiaogang, the marketing manager of Baomeng, is very optimistic about the application prospect of sensors in the robot field.

Food processing and packaging: necessary good products to improve the degree of automation
The problem of food safety has become increasingly prominent, and our country has paid more and more attention to food safety, so we have put forward a refined requirement for food detection technology. In the past, China's food machinery manufacturers ignored the application of food detection technology, and compared with the improvement of the performance of the whole machine, food detection technology will have greater development space. In the food detection technology, the sensor plays an important role in the data collection of food temperature and position. The application of sensors not only improves the production of food, but also ensures the safety of food.
"In the past, the degree of automation in the food industry was relatively low. With the increasing requirements of Chinese people for food safety and quality, and the upgrading of consumption, production enterprises may put forward some new demands for automation." Wu Tao, director of the Baruf Marketing Department, said that other industries may have ups and downs in development, but the prospect of the food packaging industry that produces fast moving consumer goods is still very broad, "The reason is that the demand of the industry itself will be constantly updated, and the existing production line needs to be constantly improved." Therefore, as a necessary good product to improve the automation of the industry, the application of sensors in the food processing and packaging industry will increase.