Top 5 Market Demands for Vision Systems

Every day, we at Cognex ask ourselves a simple question: what do our customers demand from machine vision systems? With an installation base that recently passed 850,000 we have plenty of people to ask. Our customers have identified five specific areas as extremely or very important to them when deciding to choose a vision system.

Here they are, in no particular order:

• Flexible deployment options. Most customers have limited space on the production line for vision systems. Small form factor, right-angle cable design and the ability to power lighting and Ethernet are important considerations when space is a concern.
• Intuitive user interface. One customer said, “if it’s not easy to set up applications and use them, I don’t bother taking the system out of the box.”
• Robust vision tool library. The fastest, smallest vision system is useless if the tools don't deliver reliable, repeatable performance.
• Comprehensive communications. The operator has to be able to set up seamless integration between the vision system and HMIs, robots and PLCs.
• Easy maintenance and monitoring. Most operators want to be able to see all the systems (Vision and ID) connected to the network because it’s easier to make upgrades and troubleshoot problems.

Any vision system deployed in the field needs to get “good grades” in all five of these areas in order to meet production quality and efficiency goals. For example, if the results of the inspections generated by your vision system cannot communicate with your industrial hardware, or the system is too difficult to update for changes to your parts, then you will be unable to leverage the advantages it offers.