What’s different about industrial IoT hardware?

Industrial IoT hardware might look similar, but if you inspect closely, you’ll find critical differences. These components are adding the wired or wireless communications necessary for developing Industry 4.0 standards. Legacy hardware, although traditionally reliable in their limited capabilities, are quickly becoming obsolete and more difficult to replace, not to mention more and more costly to maintain. The wide array of industrial IoT hardware continues to grow. IIoT hardware sensors adding these enhanced capabilities range from level transducers to vibration sensors to pressure sensors and more.

Moreover, the addition of a communication port currently makes hardware IIoT capable, but look for future hardware intelligence developments, which means sensors that drive production could become small-scale controllers with built-in microprocessors.
Smart hardware development takes time as manufacturers work hard to design and produce newer, more powerful components. You just can’t transform standard sensors and transducers into intelligent devices. You can add a gateway to the device, but that can be cumbersome since the product isn’t guaranteed to work as expected.

By changing out old sensors for smart ones, you’ll transition your factory to an IIoT capable system. But replacing all the sensors in a factory for smart hardware is a difficult and expensive undertaking. You can keep your costs low, however, by making updates in planned phases. Using IIoT capable devices, you can capture, process and analyze your data to make smarter production decisions.