Machine-vision market poised for growth
T&MW Staff -- Test & Measurement World, 7/1/2004
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Market researcher Frost & Sullivan has also issued a bright forecast, expecting significant growth after 2005, with the SMT inspection market, including x-ray systems, reaching $1.1 billion in 2009, from $403 million in 2002 (with x-ray systems representing about 30% of the 2002 total).
Emerging machine-vision systems will focus on their traditional applications within the electronics industry: inspecting solder paste, solder joints, and component placement on dense printed-circuit boards. X-ray systems in particular will be adapting to meet the needs of emerging lead-free-solder mandates, while optical systems will be increasingly adding 2-D product-identification-code tracking to their list of chores.
Test engineers will increasingly integrate inspection equipment into PCB production lines to off-load expensive electrical in-circuit testers. The open question is what mix of turnkey systems and custom integrated systems will serve the electronics industry.
One turnkey supplier, Teradyne, has sold its optical-inspection product line, but you can still choose such systems from many of the vendors listed below. Alternatively, you can configure your own vision system from a wide selection of cameras, lighting products, lenses, and frame grabbers, or you can hire a system integrator to do that for you. T&MW
