The global market for servo drives will expand at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 4.6% over the coming five years, says a new forecast. ARC Advisory Group predicts that the market, which generated sales of around $3.07m in 2005, will be worth more than $3,839m by 2010.

ARC says that smaller servo drives are becoming an integral part of automated machines, while high-power servos are replacing other forms of actuation in heavy machinery.

“These high-power servo drives bring down the overall cost of machines, provide precise control, reduce operating costs, and enable repeatable operations,” says the report’s principal author, ARC research director, Sal Spada. “Combining high-power servo drives with integrated machine safeguarding solutions will enable many machine-builders to lower the complexity of machine automation.”

Considerable demand for servo-driven machinery is expected to come from developing countries as manufacturers transfer their activities to these countries, and as local consumers demand goods similar to those in developed countries, ARC suggests.

The growth in the servo market is being driven by investment in automation in many industries and regions. Globalisation is forcing manufacturers to invest in automation to drive down costs and raise productivity by increasing their agility and flexibility, ARC says.