Although not completely resistant to the downturn of the global economy, the general motion control market seems capable of holding its own over the next few years. A new study from the ARC Advisory Group shows that general motion control technology will experience a CAGR of roughly 6.7% over the next five years, growing from $6 billion in 2007 to $8.2 billion in 2012.

One of the major factors in this growth is globalization. Not only are demands for automation increasing in modernized countries, but large areas in China and India are generating a significant amount of growth as they make the transition into the modern world. Automobiles, electronics and consumer goods of all kinds are increasing in demand everywhere. From a technology standpoint, this means that many manufacturers require more versatile, more accurate and more productive controllers than ever before.

Another trend in motion control are devices which combine control, I/O and computing into one integrated platform. As more and more industrial machines are built to perform critical tasks, machine builders and motion control engineers alike require more reliable automation than ever, and new types of integrated devices are better suited for these applications, like pipe bending, IC testing and sun tracking applications.

To this end Advantech has created the PEC-3240. This embedded motion controller provides 4-axis motion control with 32-ch isolated digital inputs/outputs at only 1/8 the size of a general Industrial PC. This computing platform also supports serial communication ports, USB ports, LAN ports, and VGA output. And since it doesn’t contain any internal cables and is without rotating parts (such as CPU fan and power supply fan), it operates reliably in harsh environments. Its robust design and embedded OS delivers reliability to satisfy customers in need of a rugged and compact motion controller.