Omron Electronics Achieves Record Growth, Adds Products, Partners

Mark Hoske, Editor in Chief, Control Engineering, and Rick Nelson, Chief Editor, Test & Measurement World -- Test & Measurement World, 7/1/2005 7:01:00 AM

Schaumburg, IL—Omron Electronics announced record industrial-automation sales growth for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2005, resulting from a reorganization turning more faces toward customers, continued product innovation, and focus on key automation markets, including machine-vision technologies tailored to applications areas ranging from food and beverages to semiconductors.

A just-announced partner program that bundles Omron technologies with nine other automation companies’ offerings are among ways the company plans to double its North American revenue within two years, according to Craig Bauer, president and COO of Omron Electronics LLC, in comments during a two-day media event held here June 29-30. During the event, partners demonstrated their offerings, and Omron introduced new products, including an Ethernet vision-sensor controller.

At the event, electronics and semiconductor applications took a decided backseat to the food and beverage industry, which, commented vision-lab project projects manager James Snow, is more resistant to offshore outsourcing than other industries. Indeed, food-and-beverage applications dominated the demonstrations the company presented to the press.

Nevertheless, the company sees significant opportunities in semiconductors and electronics. Indeed, sales of AOI equipment for electronics-inspection applications have doubled within the last 16 months, according to Paul Witt, strategic sales manager. Witt also commented that Omron has a group in Silicon Valley focused semiconductor applications, which will be the focus of the company's exhibit at Semicon West, July 12-14, in San Francisco.

Witt outlined a multi-pronged approach to machine-vision sales. In some instances, he said, an off-the-shelf product meets customer needs without applications support. In such instances, he said, he sees Omron competing with companies like the DVT arm of Cognex. In other instances, he said, an application may require significant interaction with customers, Omron applications engineers, and third parties.

But most cases, he said, are amenable to evaluation at Omron's vision lab, where Omron machine-vision engineers work with customer specifications and samples to develop a machine-vision solution, including camera, lights, filters, and controllers. The engineers, said Snow, the vision-lab projects manager, can turn simple (typically single-camera) applications around in two days and complex applications in five days.

Financial results

According to president and COO Bauer, the corporation’s industrial-automation division (which is responsible for machine-vision products) leads Omron Electronics' growth, with worldwide sales of $2.3 billion, an increase of 9% over the previous year. Industrial automation sales by Omron Electronics LLC in the U.S. outperformed that growth rate, with double-digit growth over the previous year. “This has been a record year for us in automation sales,” said Bauer, crediting “our spectacular growth, in an uncertain business climate, to our associates' increased attention to customer service, our new strategic focus, and our success in the packaging space,” along with increasing focus on Japanese automotive manufacturers and their tier one and two suppliers in North America. Helping customers with continuous improvements is part of the mix, he said.

Parent company Omron Corp. posted sales of $5.65 billion worldwide in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005, and net income of $280.1 million. This is a year-to-year increase for the company of 4.1% in sales and 12.6% in net income. Primary objective of the second stage of the company’s 10-year plan (Grand Design 2010) is to double the value of Omron Corp.’s business by the year 2007. “That value is delivered initially through innovative products that meet the needs of our customers,” said Bauer. Increasing the breadth of sales of its 45,000 products to existing Omron customers and gaining new ones through partner relationships “optimizes our customers’ factory floor and assists them with their continuous improvement initiatives,” he adds.

Announced partners (some products private labeled; others sold directly) who demonstrated their wares at the media event include Ann Arbor Technologies, Digi International, CCL Label, Domino Amjet, Indusoft, Gross Automation (importer for Westermo), Motoman (part of Yaskawa), Navitar, and Yaskawa Electric America. Omron Electronics, based in nearby Schaumburg, IL, highlighted the partnerships with tabletop displays, and continues its message June 30 with a day-long editor program.

New Omron Electronics product summary

The F210-ETN Ethernet vision-sensor controller has onboard storage for compressed inspection images, which can be streamed via Ethernet to a remote PC or laptop for analysis and long-term storage without interfering with ongoing production output. The controller features parallel processors for measurement and communication functions, enabling continued inspecting without interruption while processing and sending data. Access from a remote location using Omron’s Vision Composer Net software lets users start or stop sensing and set or change scan parameters without the need to directly access onboard controls.

The CJ1W-NCF position controller offers up to 16-axis high-speed positioning using a single controller, dramatically reducing the cost of cabling and programming each positioning drive individually, Omron says. The controller is compatible with the compact, powerful Omron CJ1 PLC, eliminates the need for a separate positioning CPU, and uses the new Omron high-speed Mechatrolink-II (ML2) high-speed network, communicating at 10Mbps, resulting in extremely quick response times, the company says.

Three new UHF-RFID starter kits help companies meet the growing demand today for RFID labeling on cases and pallets entering the supply chain and retail marketplace, Omron says. The kits intend to guide users easily through the initial stages of an RFID system setup, with specific “hands-on” learning and internal testing for RFID EPC-compliant label reading and writing, followed by a modular approach to system startup.

The DeviceNet safety controller is the first safety control device that can control multiple safety functions without the need for a costly safety PLC, Omron says, thereby greatly reducing the cost of an integrated safety and control network. The controller operates either with a DeviceNet PLC or alone. It can be used with systems other than DeviceNet to coordinate safety functions. It is based on the recently-developed CIP Safety protocol (ODVA) and conforms to EN954-1 Category 4 and IEC 61508 SIL3 standards.