Mr. Sabo, SABO Elektronik GmbH is celebrating its 35th anniversary. How is the company doing today?

Since our foundation, we have continued to develop. It is important for us to offer our customers a complete control solution from a single source. In addition to the controller itself, we have around 100 fieldbus components with which we can individually equip our devices.

Of course, we are also active in our anniversary year and have three new products in our portfolio. With the master terminals of the PLM 800 system family, a new product generation has come onto the market, and with the PLM 850 system family, the range of master systems has grown once again. With PLM 760, Basic and Expan Control systems are also available, which are particularly suitable for use in flat control cabinets.

A special feature this year is the move to our new production and storage hall. The 1,300^m2 of additional space has enabled us to improve our logistics and restructure and optimize our production processes.

However, the coronavirus crisis is also causing uncertainty in our industry, especially as its course cannot be planned and the long-term consequences for the German economy are unforeseeable.

When you think back to the year you founded the company, how advanced was automation in production at that time, what was "all the rage"?

Before founding Sabo Elektronik GmbH, my father was already a developer and designer of control solutions. He realized that there was a lack of special solutions on the market. There were usually only off-the-shelf products. Individual solutions developed with the customer were unusual at the time, and my father built the company on this.

In addition, it has already created a unique selling point with the first control systems. Sabo Elektronik was one of the first suppliers to offer a PLC with an integrated display. This was the first time that the display element and the control intelligence were combined, and we have retained this to this day. This made operating the control systems much more convenient, and that was already something extraordinary in 1985.

How have Industry 4.0 and advancing digitalization influenced and changed your business?

Traditional automation technology continues to evolve, and this is reflected in our product portfolio. True to the motto "PLM master systems - ready for Industry 4.0", the aforementioned PLM 800 system family, for example, is ideally suited to the challenges of digital industrial production.

For digital networking and M2M communication, we rely on open and powerful communication via the OPC UA standard. Modern target visualization supports user guidance and easy programming. Last but not least, we pay attention to the high performance of our bus systems. This enables the permanent exchange of information and thus machine-based production control. To ensure this, bus systems must be able to transfer ever larger amounts of data in ever shorter periods of time. A powerful processor is essential for this.

Is there a trend away from series products?

Yes, the trend is clearly moving more and more towards batch size 1. Individualization and communication between machines are becoming increasingly important. You can hardly do justice to this with series products. We have always focused on special solutions. This is also reflected in our product portfolio. Thanks to high signal speeds and CAN interfaces, customers can implement complete networking with our PLCs. Complex applications and a high degree of flexibility are possible.

What do you think the automation landscape will look like in 10 or 20 years?

On the road to Industry 4.0, communication protocols and data transfer between machines are particularly crucial. For the future, this means that software solutions will play an important role in this area. At the same time, it must be ensured that large volumes of data can be transferred smoothly and quickly.

There will also be major changes on the employee side. The areas of activity and the entire working environment will change significantly. Those who previously stood in front of a machine in a hall and controlled it will in future monitor the control of the machines remotely, for example from an office.

To ensure that a wide range of end devices, from laptops to smartphones and tablets, can be used, the cloud will also become increasingly important for displaying and analyzing all collected data. This requires appropriate interfaces for general data logging in the cloud. These will be the most important tasks for the next few years.