European AOI/AXI vision sales in US rise

The European and US markets have different requirements.

Ann R. Thryft, Contributing Technical Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 11/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

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Some European AOI (automated optical inspection) and AXI (automated x-ray inspection) manufacturers are experiencing increased sales in North America. “There’s a recovery going on everywhere, especially in the US,” said Carsten Salewski, president and CEO of Viscom USA, “so sales are picking up for that reason alone.” Viscom experienced a steep rise in revenue growth this year from strong demand for AOI and AXI equipment, he said. “During the downturn, we continued to develop new products, [including] products that better fit the US and Asian markets’ requirements. These S3088 series systems have better price/performance ratios, and their ease of use is also improved.”

Most European AOI companies, especially German ones, have increased their sales in high-end electronics inspection, but North America has different requirements, Salewski explained. “For example, in Europe, we [have] customers with an engineering-driven, data-driven approach to test and inspection who want to find every defect,” he said. “But in the US, especially in smaller and mid-size companies with fewer engineering resources, there’s less capacity for complex programming. So, ease of programming is becoming more important than finding 100% of defects.”

In the US, Viscom benefited from Agilent Technologies’ exit from the AXI market in 2009, and has continued to develop its own AXI product line, said Salewski. The company has received many orders for replacement in-line AOI and AXI tools. AOI machines, for example, must be replaced every eight to 10 years. Some of those original suppliers no longer exist, increasing sales for companies doing business now.

Goepel Electronics began marketing its AOI and AXI OptiCon product lines in the US at the beginning of 2011, and so far has seen strong interest for all of these products, said David Whetstone, director of North American sales and business development. The company established itself in North America over the last decade with its boundary-scan products and an office in Austin, TX, staffed with a direct sales and applications engineering team. “Goepel has been a prominent player in Europe for both product lines since the early 1990s,” he said. “The company chose to initially test the US market with its boundary-scan products because management felt that, at the time, these had the best chance of a productive reception. AOI was not as widely used in electronics then as it is now, and AXI didn’t really exist yet.”

Over the last three years, Vi Technology Americas increased sales and applications staff to support double-digit growth in AOI sales, said Jean-Marc Peallat, president and CEO. “AOI is our core business and has driven a substantial part of our growth in the Americas [during] the past three years, along with new products like the 2K platform and new features such as Selective 3D AOI,” he said. “Adding 3-D SPI [solder-paste inspection] in 2008 to our product portfolio created a real pull from our customers.” The double-digit growth has occurred all over the Americas during the past two years. T&MW

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