Sensor + Test 2019

Heat sensors were certainly redundant at this year’s show. No one needed a sensor to be told that it was 36°C in Nuremberg. However, the extreme weather didn’t seem to deter the attendees turn up in good numbers for the biggest sensors show on the continent.

Sensors have of course been the stars of the electronics components market in recent years, and no wonder. The automotive sensors market is predicted to grow to $36.4bn by 2023, and Internet of Things (IoT) sensor sales are estimated to soar to $22.4bn by the same year.

So it came as something of a surprise when the German sensor and measurement manufacturers association, the AMA, announced that sensor sales had hit a road bump in the first quarter on 2019, dipping one percent compared to the previous quarter.

This was a disappointing outcome following 2018’s ten percent growth in revenue. A slowdown in German industry compared the Q1 and the US vs China trade spat were cited as the culprits. “In rocky time the economy it susceptible to fluctuations,” Thomas Simmons, General Manager of the AMA told Electronic Specifier.

“The economy slackens, the engineering and automotive industry suffer from a decrease in orders, and that in turn effects our sensor industry.”

To dispel some of the gloom incoming orders remained stable – edging forward one percent from the previous quarter. And association members continue to be cautiously optimistic and expect a four percent growth in turnover in the second quarter as the sensor industry enables innovations in practically all application areas. And this were certainly in evidence on the show floor.