Stuttgart show highlights vision market
The worldwide machine-vision industry is showing considerable strength, based on activity at Vision 2007, held November 6–8, 2007.
-- Test & Measurement World, 2/1/2008
The worldwide machine-vision industry is showing considerable strength, based on activity at Vision 2007, held November 6–8, 2007. The Stuttgart event gave the German machine-vision industry an opportunity to tout its particular strengths.
At a November 6 press conference kicking off the show, Thomas Walter, division director of industrial solutions for Messe Stuttgart, noted that the Vision show celebrated its 20th anniversary by convening for the first time in the New Stuttgart Trade Fair Centre adjacent to Stuttgart Airport. “It is hard to believe, but Vision 2007 has attracted 281 exhibitors,” he commented, adding that the number represented “an increase of 31% compared with 2006, when we exceeded the 200 mark for the first time, with 214 exhibitors.”
Walter noted that the exhibitors hailed from 27 countries, with 42% coming from abroad: “The largest contingent of foreign exhibitors comes from the USA, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and France.” Also represented, he said, were exhibitors from the Republic of Korea, Finland, Greece, and Hungary. He had estimated that the 2007 show would have 5500 attendees, with 25% of them coming from abroad; in fact, the show enjoyed about 6000 visitors, with 32% of them coming from outside Germany.
Dr. Dietmar Ley, CEO of Basler and chairman of the VDMA (German Engineering Federation) Machine Vision Group, presented specifics related to the German machine-vision market. He said that the German machine-vision industry remains on target for solid growth. In 2006, it increased the sector’s revenue by 9% to €1.1 billion. In 2007, the companies surveyed by VDMA are expecting an increase in revenue totaling 6%, with a further increase of 6% also predicted for 2008.
He said that worldwide demand helped German manufacturers of machine-vision cameras to increase their revenue by 29% in 2006 compared with the previous year. Other machine-vision components also gained in 2006, he said, with lights up 43%, lenses up 34%, and machine-vision software up 30%. As for machine-vision systems, Ley noted that revenue for standard systems (including smart cameras and vision sensors) increased 5% in 2006, with smart-camera revenue jumping 157%. In contrast, he said, sales of custom, single-application systems fell 4%.
|
Although domestic sales represented the largest single segment of the German machine-vision industry in 2006, exports accounted for more than half of the revenues. Source: VDMA. |
Lay also reported some European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) machine-vision data for all of Europe. According to EMVA market research, he said, the European suppliers recorded an overall growth of 11% in 2006 and expect 9% growth for 2007.
See more news highlights from our February 2008 "Machine-Vision & Inspection Test Report".
