INN VATIONS in machine vision www.engineeringnews.co.nz 27 A U T O M A T I O N Machine vision (MV) is enjoying sales increases in double digits. Demand is growing constantly for ever more powerful components and systems, driven by increasingly sophisticated automation projects. AUTOMATICA 2016, which will take place in Munich, Germany from June 21 to 24, shows the new and further developments in the MV industry. Vendors and system integrators in the machine vision industry constantly succeed in providing new automation concepts with pioneering developments. Advances in service robotics, the trend topic Industry 4.0 and human-machine collaboration, as well as industry-specific tasks from leading industries sectors are still making new demands on the innovative power of machine vision today. "The very quick response to user requests distinguishes our industry, while ensuring dynamism and growth at the same time. The figures also underscore this. While robotics and automation achieved a new record in 2014 with an increase of nine percent, it was once again machine vision that saw the strongest growth with an increase of 16 percent to 1.9 billion Euros in sales,” says Dr Norbert Stein, managing director of Vitronic GmbH and chief executive of the VDMA Robotics + Automation. The positive development has a tangible reason: many automation projects can simply not be realised without vision systems. This begins with simple tasks such as reading barcodes or data matrix codes and continues to standard tasks, such as sorting cookies or candy in the food industry and goes all the way to highly complex machine vision tasks in the automotive industry. "By combining faster frame rates with high computing power, users can optimise resolution, speed and performance even on the fastest production lines. Thanks to that, they can reduce cycle times, increase productivity, increase resolution without loss of throughput or perform additional testing without increasing the cycle time,” says Jörg Küchen, vice president of Cognex. However, not every problem can be solved with standard components and plug+play installations. On the contrary, If there is a certain degree of complexity, system integrators are required such as ISRA Vision, VITRONIC and VMT. Harald Mikeska, VMT machine vision specialist from the very beginning, knows what is important in complex applications, especially in the automotive industry: "The great variety of models, in particular in the premium area, requires increased inline-monitoring of assembly processes. At a major automotive manufacturer in the Stuttgart area, up to 120 different assembly parts and components are monitored on the underbody directly on the line in continuous operation. In addition, high-performance machine vision and laser scanner solutions from VMT with up to 12 cameras are used, which have to achieve an availability of greater than 99.8 percent." Not only manufacturers of machine vision components are exhibiting at AUTOMATICA, but also system integrators and research institutes as well as VDMA Machine Vision at the joint Machine Vision Pavilion.
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