Safety Light Curtain Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The safety light curtain market is expected to register a CAGR of 5% over the forecast period 2021-2026. Rise in industrial automation is one of the primary growth factors for this market that is increasing the adoption of automation in facilities to perform repetitive tasks and allows better allocation of resources, resulting in improved quality of manufactured products.

Key Highlights

• The growing demand for processed food and beverages has burdened the manufacturing facilities to increase their production rate by incorporating automatic machines to equate the demand and supply equation. According to the Northwestern Medicine report, almost 80% of Americans’ total calorie consumption comes from store-bought foods and beverages (packaged and unpackaged), the food and beverage supply plays a central role in the development of chronic disease including obesity and cardiovascular disease. Higher deployment of machines in facilities has fueled the demand for safety equipment such as safety light curtains that will subsequently impact market growth.
• Rapid expansion of e-commerce in almost every sector due to development of user- friendly interface, ease of shopping, accessibility of smartphones and greater penetration of internet across geography has led to construction of warehouses and implementation of robots in the facility to obtain faster deliveries.
• For instance, Amazon, online retail giant currently has more than 110 active fulfillment centers, 45 sorting centers, and roughly 50 delivery stations, in the United States and more than 185 centers globally that are scattered across the geography with more than 200,000 mobile robots to provide fast, cheap and relatively painless deliveries for consumers. It plans to scale up the numbers by 33 new warehouses around the globe in coming years which is expected to increase the implementation of safety light curtains devices in the future.
• Despite of low rate of adoption of safely light curtains in developing countries, high maintenance requirements the market will experience surge growth in forecast period due to its high demand in automotive, food and beverage and electronic industries.

Key Market Trends

Automotive Sector to Hold a Significant Market Share

• The automotive sector will experience significant growth in the forecast period due to growing construction of a smart factory that relies on smart manufacturing by employing technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, analytics, big data and the internet of things (IoT) and can run largely autonomously with the ability to self-correct. A smart factory is an important outcome of Industry 4.0.
• According to Capgemini’s Smart factories 2019 report, most organizations are progressing their smart factory initiatives and one-third of factories have already been transformed into smart facilities. They also plan to make 40% more smart factories in the next five years and increase their annual investments by 1.7 times compared to the last three years. This will open up new opportunities for the safety light curtains in the future.
• As the automotive factories' floor is always busy and bustling with robots and equipment there is a huge risk on the health and safety of workers. Thousands of pounds of metal hanging above workers, sharp tools in use, and repetitive motions a mainstay technique, clearly demands proper systems to prevent some of the more foreseeable incidents. The most common reported injuries in automotive factories were sprains (39% of the total), lacerations (22%), and contusions (15%).
• Due to rapid growth of automotive sector, key vendors are developing devices with a programmable logic controller (PLC) to operate as a safety alert device that opens possibilities of real-time data monitoring and alarms of a human breach to an unsafe machine area and will aid in reduction of industrial accidents and fatalities. For instance, Panasonic launched the SF4D safety light curtain series. It has a slim and robust body with a new optical system for easy beam alignment and IO-Link communication for safety light curtains. The IO-Link communication unit SFD-WL3 can be integrated into the existing SF4D safety light curtain configuration and allows storage and restoration of setting data and observation of functionality during operation.

Asia-Pacific Will Experience Significant Growth

• Surging mortality rate due to occupational hazards in developing countries of Asia Pacific region and reinforcement of industry 4.0 due to technological advancements are the primary factors that will boost the demand for safety light curtains devices.
• According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), more than 1.1 people die from occupational accidents or work-related diseases in the Asia Pacific every year. This is due to the poor attention paid to the safety measures of the workforce by the manufacturing companies. Governments, worker, employers are now increasing their efforts to prevent accidents and diseases in the workplace. The ILO is also trying to strengthen national occupational safety and health (OSH) systems through labour inspections, occupational injury reporting, training and information, and national OSH campaigns which have created the awareness as well as forced manufacturing companies to implement safety instruments in the vicinity and provide efficient training to employees beforehand.
• The packaging industry which runs on huge machines is blossoming in Asian countries due to growing population and income levels. According to the Indian Institute of Packaging, packaging industry in India is anticipated to reach USD 73.6 billion by 2020 and it is predicted to grow at the rate 18% annually with flexible packaging at 25% and rigid packaging at 15%. It is expected to drive the growth of the market in the future.
• The COVID-19 pandemic has affected most to the manufacturing industry due to the lockdown of almost all the facilities across the globe. Asian countries are more stringent regarding temporary closing down their borders that will hamper the growth of the market. Prices of the safety light curtains are expected to rise due to disruption in raw material supply chain as most of the Asian countries have shut down their borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Competitive Landscape

The safety light curtain market is competitive and is dominated by a few major players like Schneider Electric, Keyence Corporation, Sick AG, Rockwell Automation, Inc., and Banner Engineering Corporation. These major players with a prominent share in the market are focusing on expanding their customer base across foreign countries. These companies are leveraging strategic collaborative initiatives to increase their market share and increase their profitability. However, with technological advancements and product innovations, mid-size to smaller companies are increasing their market presence by securing new contracts and by tapping new markets.

• January 2020 - OMRON Corporation has opened Automation Center Tokyo (ATC-TOKYO) in Shinagawa. The ATC-TOKYO is OMRON's flagship factory automation (FA) technology center that would allow customers to experience and test state-of-the-art FA that seamlessly integrates AI, IoT, robotics, and other cutting-edge technologies. Customers are invited to test for themselves customized solutions to issues that they encounter on production floors, which tap into innovative technologies and applications created through an optimal combination of OMRON's more than 200,000 different types of control devices.
• December 2019 - Sick AG, a German sensor manufacturer, had launched a new production site in China and created the prerequisites for reacting to rising market demand as well as for supplying customers with automation solutions. The company will concentrate on localized product manufacture as well as system construction for individual customers.

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