Cognex launch targets cost and complexity of vision sensors

London – While vision sensors can be found monitoring production quality on lines for everything from potato chips to semiconductor chips, use of these devices has long been hampered by their relatively high cost as well as the complexities of installing and using them.

Vision sensor technology currently fills just 20% of its potential applications, said Declan O’Dea, regional sales manager, Northern Europe, Cognex, speaking at an 11 March press launch in London for a new technology intended to address the above concerns.

Cognex claims to be the biggest player in the vision sensor arena with 2007 sales of $226 million and 400,000 systems installed worldwide. The Natick, Massachusetts-headquartered company - with origins at the MIT - employs around 800 including 120 in Europe and 15 at its UK base in Milton Keynes. Its European manufacturing based is in Cork, the Republic of Ireland.

Cognex main businesss area is in Factory Automation, which encompasses machine vision systems; vision software, vision sensors and ID readers. These activities represent 62% of company sales – compared to 25% from the OEM semiconductor and electronics Industries and 13% from its surface inspection technologies.

Cognex designs, develops and manufactures vision products, explained O’Dea, who went on to note a "blurring in the lines" between vision systems and increasingly complex sensors, which are now essentially computers with camera technology. Other trends in the market, he said, include demands for lower cost, greater ease-of-use and growing pressure on machine builders to reduce machine footprint, so limiting space for vision sensors.

Hence the launch of the In-Sight Micro range, which was described by O’Dea as “a standalone vision system in a very small package.” The entire system comprises a camera measuring just 30mm x 30mm x 60mm, an intuitive configuration software called EasyBuilder, and the VisionView operator interface display.

There are five new In-Sight Micro models, which cover a range of performance and resolution levels, including a two-megapixel model as well as the Cognex vision tool library that addresses a wide range of vision applications across many industries. The In-Sight Micro camera is designed to be small enough for mounting in tight spaces on robots, production lines and machinery, while it can also be mounted at angles of up to 45-degrees for hard-to-reach applications.

According to O'Dea, the In-Sight Micro range starts with an entry-level package - this comes with EasyBuilder technology only -  costing around Euro2400, compared to around Euro3800 for an equivalent In-Sight model. The top-of-the range system, he said, is priced at around Euro8000 and offers a performance “right up to the top of what we can do today with the current In-Sight range."

The new EasyBuilder configuration software is designed to make the vision system easy to set up and deploy. Using a point-and-click approach, the software guides users in setting up a vision application and eliminates the need for programming even when customising complex applications, the company claims.

At the London press launch, a Cognex engineer carried a configuration for a marked metal test plate using the EasyBuild software. The exercise took about 20 minutes to complete, which said O’Dea, would compare to two days of programming with existing technology. “Operators on the plant floor with no vision experience will have no problem with this technology,” he also commented. 

VisionView costs around Euro1000 and is designed as “a do-no-harm device that is easy for operators to use but does not enable them to fiddle with the settings," Cognex officials said. The operator interface panel is designed to make it easier to monitor production processes without a PC. Once connected, it can automatically detect any Cognex vision system on the network and simultaneously display information from up to nine vision systems in a tiled view.

According to O’Dea, key target markets for In-Sight Micro in the process industries.include the food & beverage industry. Many potential customers, he noted, do not have a lot of money to invest and often don’t feel the pressure to invest in sensor technology until something goes seriously wrong, for example with the bar coding and labelling of products. He went on to note that existing customers can upgrade to the new technology via licence.