This brief guide outlines the groundbreaking benefits that innovative M12 connectors are offering in today’s industrial business applications and processes. M12 connectors are among the most remarkable scientific discoveries to date. And, by uniting the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), these are revolutionizing the world.
With the escalating requirement for cloud-based data transfer, Industry 4.0 applications require more efficient parts and connectivity technologies. Since smaller appliances and sensors convey more data and need multiple points of connectivity, connectors must offer this very same power intensity at a compact size. And this small piece of technology, the M12 connector, is perfectly suitable for applications with limited area, including all types of industrial activities.
What are M12 Connectors?
In simple words, these connectors are just like any other connectors, except they come in a circular form with a 12-mm locking thread. Such connectors are mostly used in plant automation and control systems, sensor systems, industrial ethernet, and some more. These connectors can go a long way as they are optimized for harsh and hostile conditions.
What Is Industry 4.0?
Industry 4.0, often known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, generally refers to the smart integration of industrial equipment and processes using Information Technology. Basically, conventional production and industrial methods are constantly being automated using contemporary intelligent technologies.
How Are M12 Connectors Contributing to Industry 4.0?
While M12 connectors lately became the best-selling connector for Industrial Ethernet, they have actually been in use even decades before the Fourth Industrial Revolution was even a notion. M12 connectors are included in current and prospective technologies by designers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). The usage of these connectors in new equipment is rising in favor of more interconnected industrial contexts.
In addition, they are also employed for updating existing facilities. As M12 connector have advanced compatibility engineering, it is fairly straightforward and cost-efficient to upgrade obsolete and less durable technologies with these. For data transfer, currently, M12 connectors are the go-to solution. They extract and transfer data from devices to apps where that data is processed to offer the consumers relevant information.
The technology used in M12 Connectors is further progressing as the programs it serves become increasingly linked. Manufacturers of these connectors provide additional capabilities to satisfy the requirements for automation technology, robotics, beverages sectors, mobile communications and transport markets, and more. As these dynamic connectors have such exceptional versatility and modification possibilities, they are regarded as a sustainable alternative in industrial contexts.
What will be the impact of Industry 4.0?
The Internet of Things is finding its way into production. The networking of all units follows a completely new logic and leads to value creation networks. A potentially strong productivity boost for many traditional industries.
The industrial revolution (1750-1850) had a major impact on manufacturing; they changed European society forever. In the new industrial age, water and steam power accelerated productivity, wage labor took hold and the transport of goods was greatly simplified. At the beginning of the 20th century there was the second industrial revolution: electrification made assembly line work and mass production possible. And in the 1970s, information technology (IT) finally triggered the third. But that did not end there, the fourth industrial revolution has just begun. The megatrend known as Industry 4.0 was triggered by the Internet of Things and Services, which is currently finding its way into the manufacturing industry.
The term was coined in 2011 by the German physics professor Henning Kagermann. In one of his scientific articles, which was published in 2013 as a supplement to the specialist journal “IM – Information, Management and Consulting” (compilation: “Industry 4.0 – How do production processes look in 2020?”), The former spokesman for the German software company SAP and Acting President of the German Academy of Science and Engineering developed the groundbreaking concept: In the future, it will no longer just be about production chains, but about real-time-optimized value-added networks. Industry 4.0 resolves the contradiction between individual production and efficiency gains (from scaling effects).
Revolutions can only be identified as such in retrospect, but one thing can already be said: By networking suppliers, production facilities, processes, materials and end products, a completely new production logic is created that leads to higher added value. Digitization makes production faster, more flexible, more transparent – and cheaper. In order to take individual needs into account more strongly than before, it is now possible to produce more individual product variants tailored to customer requirements – without any loss of efficiency.
Technologically possible at all? Absolutely. According to Kagermann, cyber-physical systems (CPS) – the core technology – break down the production process into the smallest abstractly describable and therefore freely linkable services. A paradigm shift is taking place: Step by step, they will distance themselves from the central control system and move towards a decentralized control system. This makes processes of unimaginable complexity digitally controllable. For the blank it means that it changes from a passive to an active, co-determining element of the process. The required end product can therefore control its own production steps before it is completed.
It may be true that the increasingly intelligent work robots will take over some of the human tasks . This was also the case with the three previous industrial revolutions. According to the strategy consultancy Roland Berger, however, the way to new opportunities should also be paved. Because thanks to the new “connectivity quality”, all productive units – human, machine, product component and system – will work “hand in hand” with one another and trigger a strong productivity boost.
Final Words
Thanks to its compact size, sturdy construction, and dependable performance, an M12 connector is the preferred option for Industrial Ethernet, and these connectors are continually striving to advance the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
