About one in three industrial companies in the Netherlands has postponed investments or abandoned them altogether in the past twelve months. This is shown by the Netherlands Business Survey for October, published by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) on 5 November. Across all sectors, it concerns almost a quarter of companies.
What CBS reports about industry
In industry, 18.6 percent of companies postponed investments, 3.0 percent abandoned them and 11.5 percent did both. Together that is just over 33 percent. Only in real estate and hospitality is that share higher.
Industrial companies mainly cite financial constraints (22.2 percent) and uncertainty about future policy or regulation (20.8 percent) as obstacles to investing. These are followed by regulation, permits or infrastructure (13.9 percent), insufficient demand (13.4 percent) and a shortage of staff or expertise (10.5 percent).
At the same time, industry does keep investing in renewal. Asked about the main area for staying future-proof, 42.1 percent of industrial companies choose technology, such as digitalisation and automation. Product innovation or R&D follows with 26.2 percent, the highest share of all sectors.
Converting instead of buying new
We see this combination in practice too. A new machine or line stays on the shelf, but the existing machine does get new servo motors, new controls or extra sensors. A retrofit is cheaper than a new build, and the machine can then keep going for years.
There is one point that is easily overlooked. In a retrofit the cable package almost always changes: servo cables are thicker than the old motor cables, encoder and bus cables are added and the machine often runs faster. The existing cable carrier was not designed for that.
Three points to consider in a conversion:
- Does the new package still fit? Calculate with the new cable list, with 10% clearance per cable and 20% per hose, and keep the fill level below 85%.
- Is the radius large enough? The thickest new cable determines the minimum bending radius. A larger radius also makes the carrier taller.
- Can the carrier handle the new speed? New drives often accelerate harder than the old ones. Each type has its own limit.
How to check these points, with a worked example from motor cable to servo cable, is explained in our new article machine retrofit: check your cable carrier.
What Wisman Techniek does
For a retrofit, Wisman Techniek checks the new cable package free of charge and advises on the width, the radius and the layout of the carrier. If the existing carrier no longer fits, we supply a new one, complete with cables if you wish and assembled in our workshop in Ruurlo. In the Cable carrier configurator you can calculate a carrier yourself for your new cables.
Calculate it yourselfCable carrier configuratorCalculate, select and assemble a cable carrierOpen the cable carrier configurator
