Join us at the Vision Show to Learn More
Nortech Applications Engineer Jerome Taylor will be speaking at The Vision Show on the future of smart multi-function cables. See us at the conference and at Booth #311.
A paradigm shift is occurring across the electronics industry where vision and sensor systems are rapidly advancing in intelligence, processing capability, and independence, leading to the need to communicate more data reliably. Added to this are increasing deployments of factory automation and monitoring systems. Future vision and sensor applications will leverage converging connector standards and consolidations in wiring which feature a combination of optical fiber and copper wires in multi-function cables. The net effect is a simplified architecture with improved performance resulting in a more efficient supply chain and economies-of-scale.
Today’s cable ecosystems for vision applications are not only more diverse but are demanding more data, longer distances, and greater reliability in a simplified interconnect architecture (smaller, lighter, faster). At the center of it all are connected and aggregated data systems from assets and machines. That Big Data is analyzed to drive optimization and increased value.
A new advantage will be the ability to monitor the health of our digital enterprise and predictively model asset maintenance. Cables will no longer be passive and unintelligent but will evolve to integrate intelligence and sensing within the cable to generate actionable diagnostics.
Predictive Maintenance with Smart Cables
Predictive maintenance becomes possible when diagnostic data can be statistically modeled to provide trends in performance degradation. This new advantage will allow us to proactively schedule system maintenance, avoid line-down interruptions, and benefit from more efficient supply chain and operational results.
In addition to the introduction of digital diagnostics embedded within interconnect, the cable industry is following the trend to miniaturize electronics. The days of assembling multiple cables into a larger wiring harness to provide multiple functions from point to point are coming to an end. Rather than combine separate copper cables for RF data communication, sensing, control, power, etc., the cable industry is shrinking its products and increasing its value by transitioning to hybrid construction by replacing large portions of copper content with fiber optics.
