According to the report, the primary customers for motion control systems remain machinery builders, mechanical handling and warehousing companies, electrical panel builders and specialist motion control projects companies. The leading global industrial markets still account for the overwhelming proportion of motion control systems business. Even the entertainment industry can be an end-user, for example in the control of theatre scenery and lighting. In addition, there are now indications that the end-user is becoming more likely to implement a motion control application directly. Almost 70 per cent of the motion control market by type of drive is for servo-systems.
Japan has the lowest relative market share for servo systems and the highest for stepper motors.
In most markets, demand for servo motion systems has grown in line with or slightly less than overall market growth, except in Japan, where the market for servo motion systems has in fact fallen over the last five years. Of the eleven key markets featured in the report, the United Kingdom in particular has experienced increasing use of variable speed and universal drives in motion control. The UK market is characterised by relatively high loads and higher power-outputs of motion systems. Market forces, including consolidation, are tidying up a fragmented marketplace Companies in the motion control industry have in the past often experienced a typical cycle of development. New motion control suppliers and systems integrators are often formed when a group of employees split from an existing company when it relocates, reorganises or makes management changes.