Machine Vision Eyes a Healthy Tomorrow
Industrial machine vision Product Research - Machine vision continues to play a major role in automation and control as products offer better, more reliable performance, ease of use, and state-of-the-art features such as smart vision sensors. Investment in well-designed, carefully-planned systems remains strong, and the future points to increasing application of—and spending for—this important and growing technology.
Jeanine Katzel, Control Engineering
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New research shows barcode applications again top the list of machine vision applications, mirroring the 2007 survey. |
Machine vision continues to play a major role in automation and control as products offer better, more reliable performance, ease of use, and state-of-the-art features such as smart vision sensors. Investment in well-designed, carefully-planned systems remains strong, and the future points to increasing application of—and spending for—this important and growing technology.
These conclusions reflect the attitudes and opinions of some 135 subscribers who responded recently to an online study by Control Engineering ( www.controleng.com ) and Reed Research Group ( www.reedbusiness.com ) that queried them about machine vision product use and preferences. Results of this current survey support many trends identified in the previous study (May 2007), which showed increasing use of machine vision technologies and concerns about setup and installation. Key findings are shown here in the graphs, with more online.
| Ease of use and performance continue to be the features respondents want most in their machine vision products, matching 2007 results. Increasing in importance since the last survey are ease of set-up (moving from fourth to third) and price (from sixth up to fourth). Technical supoort dropped to fifth (from third last time). |
Machine vision system products
Control Engineering subscribers participating in this research identified, from a list provided, the vendors included here as leading suppliers of machine vision systems and related products. For more manufacturers and distributors, visit www.cesuppliersearch.com . Find system integrators at www.controleng.com/integrators .
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Spending for machine vision products in the next 12 months is expected to increase or remain the same for 93% of all survey respondents. |
Vision: Small, smart, easy
Small, smart, and easy are the words Cognex applies to its next-generation vision system. In-Sight Micro puts a complete vision system into a 30 x 30 x 60 mm package. The system is about the size of a remote-head camera, suitable for mounting in tight spaces on robots, production lines, and machinery. Flexible mounting capability with a non-linear calibration tool enables mounting at angles of up to 45 deg for hard-to-reach applications. Five new models—including a 2 MP unit—cover a range of price, performance, and resolution levels. Each system includes the Cognex vision tool library to handle a broad range of vision applications for many industries. www.cognex.com/micro Cognex Corp.
Lighting products for vision
Illumination products from Banner include configurations in five color options with an array of filters, diffusers, and mounting systems. Any may be added to the company’s PresencePlus vision sensors or other vision platform to improve inspection accuracy and reliability. Lighting helps vision sensors yield a high-contrast image to improve repeatability, reliability, and accuracy for a successful, high-speed inspection. www.bannerengineering.com Banner Engineering Corp.
Also see
CV-3000 vision system, Keyence Corp. ofAmerica www.visionsystem.com
NI 1744, NI 1762, NI 1764 smart cameras,National Instruments www.ni.com
Omron Electronics ZFX machine visionsensor www.omron247.com
Inspector Vision Sensor, Sick , www.sickusa.com
HawkEye 1600T camera, Microscan Systems www.microscan.com
Matrox Design Assistant 2.0 software fromMatrox Imaging www.matrox.com
Phantom Miro, Vision Research www.visionresearch.com ; www.ametek.com
Genie C1410 and M1410, GigEvision-compliant , Dalsa Corp. www.dalsa.com
Optical Character Verifier 2, SystechInternational www.systec-tips.com
5 MP progressive scan camera, digitalinterface , Jai Inc. www.jai.com
Impact Software Suite, v. 8.0, PPT VisionInc . www.pptvision.com
CleverDragon, Toshiba Teli America www.toshiba-teli.com
Castell QuadCam 3D safety zone system www.castell.com
PV500-high speed vision, Panasonic Electric Works Corp. ofAmerica pewa.panasonic.com
ONLINE extra
Machine vision product research: Positive attitudes, outlooks, new products - Here find more 2008 machine vision research results and advice from survey takers. Also see the machine vision online resource guide, below.
Machine vision online resource guide
Links below contain application articles, tutorials, research, products, and system integrators related to machine vision.
Author Information |
Jeanine Katzel is a consulting editor for Control Engineering. Contact her at jkatzel@sbcglobal.net . |
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