Current situation of proximity switch industry

Proximity switches first appeared in the field of industrial production and are mainly used to improve production efficiency. With the continuous development of integrated circuits and scientific and technological information, proximity switches have gradually stepped into diversification, become one of the three pillars of modern information technology, and are also considered to be the most promising high-tech industry.

Therefore, countries all over the world attach great importance to the development of proximity switch manufacturing industry and have invested a lot of resources. At present, there are more than 1000 proximity switch research and manufacturers in the United States, Europe and Russia. With the continuous promotion of various countries, the global proximity switch market has maintained rapid growth.

According to the statistical data of the analysis report on the development prospect and investment forecast of China's proximity switch manufacturing industry released by the prospective industry research institute, the global proximity switch market reached 72 billion US dollars in 2010. In 2013, the global proximity switch market exceeded US $100 billion. By 2016, the global proximity switch market had grown to US $174.1 billion. By 2017, the global proximity switch market had reached US $190 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.13%. With the increasing demand for proximity switches in the global market, the scale of proximity switch market will continue to grow. It is expected that the scale of global proximity switch market will exceed US $200 billion in 2018.

The development of China's proximity switch manufacturing industry began in the 1960s. The first batch of research and production units of piezoresistive proximity switches in China were established in 1972; In 1974, the first practical piezoresistive pressure proximity switch in China was successfully developed; In 1978, China's first solid-state piezoresistive acceleration proximity switch was born; In 1982, China first started the research on silicon micromachining system (MEMS) processing technology and SOI (silicon on insulator) technology.

Since the 1990s, the absolute pressure proximity switch, micro pressure proximity switch, ventilator pressure proximity switch, polysilicon pressure proximity switch and low-cost TO-8 encapsulated pressure proximity switch of silicon micromachining technology have been successively published and produced, and the proximity switch technology and industry have made remarkable progress.

In the 21st century, the proximity switch manufacturing industry began to develop from traditional to intelligent. Intelligent proximity switch with microprocessor has the ability to collect, process and exchange information. It is the product of the integration of proximity switch and microprocessor. Due to the important role of intelligent proximity switches in the Internet of things and other industries, China has raised the development of proximity switch manufacturing industry to a new height, which has led to an upsurge of research and development and highlighted its market position.

At the same time, driven by the demand of automobile, logistics, coal mine safety supervision, security, RFID tag card and other fields, the proximity switch market has also expanded rapidly. By 2017, the total sales revenue of Enterprises above Designated Size in China's proximity switch manufacturing industry had reached 74.778 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.02%.

Although China's proximity switch manufacturing industry has made great progress, there is still an obvious gap compared with developed countries. This gap is reflected in: incomplete product varieties, few specifications and lack of new products; Poor scientific and technological innovation and few products with independent intellectual property rights; Backward process equipment and poor product quality; Lack of human resources and insufficient stamina for industrial development; Insufficient overall planning, low investment intensity in scientific research, backward scientific research equipment, and disconnection between scientific research and production; The government does not pay enough attention, and the understanding of the importance of proximity switch technology lags behind computer technology and communication technology. As a result, the United States, Japan and Germany account for nearly 70% of the global proximity switch market, while China accounts for only about 10%.

In terms of enterprise competition, the main participants in the global proximity switch market include Ge proximity switch, Emerson, Siemens, Bosch, Italian French semiconductor, Honeywell, abb, Yokogawa, Omron, Schneider Electric, e + H, etc. about 70% of China's proximity switch market is occupied by these foreign-funded enterprises.

China's proximity switch manufacturing industry is mostly dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta. In 2017, the number of proximity switch manufacturers above Designated Size in China was 298, an increase of 7 over the previous year. Among them, the number of small and medium-sized enterprises accounts for the vast majority, and the number of large enterprises is small.

Although it is lagging behind for the time being, Chinese enterprises do not have no chance to catch up. For example, China has occupied a certain position in the automotive field with the fastest growth of proximity switches in the world. Data show that China accounts for 14.20% of the global automotive proximity switch market, second only to Europe and surpassing the United States and Japan.

Generally speaking, with the development of proximity switch system towards miniaturization, intelligence, multi-function and networking, Chinese enterprises still have the opportunity to overtake in curves.