Standards set to drive machine vision market

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 1, 2005

With customers insisting on zero-defect products, manufacturers have started focusing on quality and quality control.

With customers insisting on zero-defect products, manufacturers have started focusing on quality and quality control.

The automation of inspection processes to keep pace with increasing throughput of production and assembly lines and stringent quality requirements are boosting demand for industrial vision systems.

A key issue for vision system companies in this phase is the existing incompatibility between proprietary hardware and software.

The proprietary systems pose difficulties for end users trying to migrate to new systems for better scalability.

Solutions must aim to eliminate the incompatibility between vision system elements of different manufacturers by adopting common hardware interface and networking standards.

Frost and Sullivan Sensors Analyst S Gomathinayagam explains: "Standardisation will improve the scalability and functionality of the systems and sustain growth".

"Already, companies are adopting hardware interface standards such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), FireWire (IEEE1394) and CameraLink to aid the interaction between the system elements, underlining the importance of common standards in widening the end user base".

Further, the growing requirement for novel models and better flexibility in terms of reducing product changeover times, multiple part inspection and producing compact systems also presents opportunities for industrial vision systems.

These compact vision systems must facilitate multiple parts inspection and tackle product changeovers seamlessly without major reprogramming.

Developments in digital camera technology enable industrial vision systems to detect a wider range of defects and find new applications.

Vendors can thus offer customised solutions in the form of cameras and the associated hardware and software.

The latest systems provide real-time feedback, improved processing speed and effective control over the production process.

The latest compact vision systems facilitate system installation within the production line, enabling online inspection without hindering throughput.

These developments can help manufacturers achieve a growth rate of 10.5%, with revenue of nearly $1.00 billion by 2011.

The overall growth rate of the vision systems market is forecast at 9.6% for the period 2004-11.

Customers in this growing market are insisting on smarter and faster processors with emphasis on real-time data that match the production line throughput and offer better process and machine control.

Sophisticated artificial intelligence, PC-based systems and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are some of the advanced end user requirements that the vision systems companies are able to meet.

In addition, manufacturers are focusing increasingly on machine vision systems that offer better performance and value to the end users.

Due to the continuous flow of these new and powerful systems into the market, the product life cycles have reduced.

"Vision systems are finding acceptance across new industry segments such as wood work, plastics, nonwoven, packaging, and pharmaceuticals", notes Gomathinayagam.

"These industries incorporate vision systems for quality inspection, part recognition and guidance applications".

The increasingly competitive industrial vision systems market is experiencing a phase of consolidation.

Larger enterprises are adopting this strategy to strengthen their market position, and their smaller and medium-sized counterparts are cashing in on this trend to tap new markets and geographic areas.

Moreover, with substantial help from the technological advancements in the recent years, the market is able to offer reliable and viable solutions to broader end-user segments.