Acrovision was recently announced as one of the first system integrators to sign up to UKIVA’s new Vision Integrator Standard, so it’s little surprise that the company also features in Imaging and Machine Vision Europe’s first cohort of Visionaries, celebrating innovators in the field of imaging and machine vision technology.
Acrovision supplies vision inspection systems, industrial barcode & RFID readers, and high-precision robots and specialises in industry sectors including manufacturing and industrial automation; automotive and transportation; healthcare and medical imaging; aerospace and defence; robotics and AI; electronics and semiconductor manufacturing. It provides vision integration services to pharmaceutical, food & drink, manufacturing and logistics companies, predominantly in the UK, but with some overseas presence.
Traditionally, it has been most successful within the automotive industry. Paul Cunningham, Acrovision’s managing director says this has been primarily driven by Acrovision’s partnership with Cognex “as this has been their historical stronghold”.
AI 'an opportunity in all vision market verticals'
“Moving forward I foresee our main growth potential within the healthcare/pharmaceutical market,” says Cunningham. “This is with our ‘Validator’ product range – a family of ‘end of line’ label and packaging inspection systems. We have had great success with Validator within the food and drink market, but more recently we have added a ‘21 CFR Part 11’ module to it. This is a medical device/healthcare manufacturing requirement related to auditing and management of electronic records and signatures. Since having this functionality within Validator, we have had some large wins, but know there is a lot more potential out there.
“The other main opportunity within the vision industry but across all vertical markets is the advancement of AI or deep learning. Although there are limitations, there is no doubt it will open up applications previously unachievable with traditional vision.”
Cunningham is matter-of-fact about the challenges faced by Acrovision and the wider industry: “We have seen a down-turn in spend on major projects over the past 18 months. Having spoken to peers, suppliers, and customers, we believe it is mainly the result of current economic and geo-political unrest. Our clients are keeping their purse strings tight until they can see a clearer outlook for the future. We believe this can only be relatively short-term but need to manage expectations accordingly.
“Secondly, we have always struggled with finding good young talent who are willing to enter our industry. As the pool of experienced vision engineers is very small, this is what we have to do, but it is not an easy task.”
Cunningham believes there are two main differentiators between Acrovision and its system integrator competitors.
“Firstly, we have three technical sales consultants who will carry out the initial discussions with our clients. We find this personal and consultative approach much appreciated by our customers. Being technical, they are also often our first port of call for after-sales technical support,” he says.
The second way it differentiates itself is in how it packages and markets its solutions: “Validator is a good example, where we were continually being asked for solutions to check barcodes / OCR sell-by dates, label positions etc. We decided to produce Validator as a brand that we could promote as being a “ready-made solution” for end of line inspections, so the customer didn’t think they were being guinea-pigs for a bespoke system.
“We believe some of our competitors are great at solving a problem, but then wait for someone else to come along with another new problem. Whereas we will look at the problem and look to see if any other similar companies in that marketplace may have the same problem.”
Acrovision has a diverse approach to sourcing business opportunities, says Cunningham: “We have a good mix of marketing and lead generation. Our main supplier, Cognex, provides system leads; we normally do two or three exhibitions a year; we have three sales people self-generating leads. And finally a mix of e-shoots and social media advertising.”
When Acrovision begins working with a new end user, Cunningham says it has “a team of sales consultants who will go through every requirement and advise on next steps. We carry out full evaluations and on-site demos or trials if required.”
On managing client expectations in terms of what a vision system can or cannot do, he says: “Our proposals also state the responsibilities of both customer and supplier, along with anticipated results and risks.”
Acrovision also offers training courses, from beginners’ level to advanced, on areas such as machine vision, first line support and maintenance training, as well as guidance on Cognex products and software.
Cunningham says that Acrovision buys components and systems including: machine vision cameras; optics and lenses; lighting and illumination; cabling and accessories; AI and deep learning for vision. While he says Acrovision has not experienced the issues with supply chain restrictions in sourcing vision components and systems that many other integrators have encountered, it has been affected by the skills shortage: “The problem is finding experienced vision engineers to employ.”
What machine vision integrators want from vendors
In terms of how vendors support the business, Cunningham says Acrovision is “relatively lucky that Cognex has a relatively small group of partners and therefore we get treated fairly well. The flip side to the reason they only have a few partners is the fact that they run a “mixed model” i.e. they have a combination of partners and a direct sales force that can sometimes cause conflict.
“They are also a world-leading brand, which makes it easier for us to break into new customers who may not have heard of Acrovision. The breadth of product is also vast with Cognex, which means we very rarely must go outside the Cognex offerings to solve an application. Their stock holding has been very strong, even when other vision components and supplies we know have been a challenge.”
He says technical support is also very important and that, although Acrovision is largely self-sufficient, it does call upon advanced assistance at times.
Cunningham also points out some of the integrator’s responsibilities in dealing with a vendor: “As far as making us easy to deal with, we know we have to continually spend time and resource in training our staff in the vendor’s product range and investing in demo kit / development licences. We also need to demonstrate that we will follow up leads in a professional and timely manner.”
Asked how vendors could improve, he says: “In our case, better introductions to new products would be appreciated. It’s important to know the limitations as well as the strengths of new products, as well as having the relevant competitive information. Of course increased marketing investment leading to more leads Is always appreciated!”
On signing up to UKIVA’s new Vision Integrator Standard, Cunningham said: “There is still a lot of competition in the vision integrator market in the UK. We therefore know that Acrovision must somehow positively differentiate ourselves from our competition. We spend a lot of time and money training up our staff, investing in demo kits, lab equipment, to help us provide our customers with the most robust and cost-effective solutions that we can.
He said that the initiative acknowledges that “not all integrators are the same and there should be some recognition for those that are meeting certain business quality criteria”.
Acrovision case studies
Acrovision provided three case studies to illustrate the range of integration solutions it offers. The first, for a pharmaceutical company that manufactures, packs and supplies products to more than 40 countries around the world, was to install a new pill inspection and blister pack barcode/text validation system. As it was in a pharmaceutical environment, the system had to conform to the GAMP and 21CFR part 11 standards.
As it was in a pharmaceutical environment, Acrovision's imaging solution to inspect blister packs had to conform to the GAMP and 21CFR part 11 standards (Image: Acrovision)
Challenges included the ability to read multiple lines of text at high speed, to scan blister packs that were not always a uniform grid and the inspection of white labels on a white background. Acrovision’s solution consisted of Cognex high-end colour Smart Cameras, a mix of coaxial lights and backlights, along with the industrial PCs, control panels and framework / light enclosure. This was all run by the Validator software and a C# custom front-end.
Acrovision says the customer was impressed, both that the system could be custom tailored to its own needs without requiring an expensive bespoke offering and that Acrovision handled the full turnkey solution – from consultancy, system design, framework / control panel and hardware installation, commissioning and GAMP testing and documentation.
The second integration was a validation system for HERMA Labelling Systems, which designs and builds labelling equipment across several sectors, including food & beverage, healthcare, toiletry and cosmetics. HERMA had found that labels on one of its customer’s products were straying outside of specific tolerances, but still providing a high pass rate.
Its requirements included an automated check to inspect up to 175 products per minute; validation of the correct label by unique pattern / colours and label placement to be calculated and adjusted accordingly. Acrovision’s solution included a Cognex camera, which inspects up to 175 products per minute while checking that the top label is not only the correct label but also central to the customer’s product. These products are then inspected by the Cognex Vision System to ensure no labels are misplaced, missing, damaged or incorrect.
Acrovision says the user’s feedback was that the solution provides great quality control, correct label placement and assurances that the product labels are 100% correct.
The final integration solution put forward by Acrovision was for Toyota’s manufacturing plant at Burnaston in Derbyshire, UK. It provided an automated inspection system to replace, automate and enhance the plant’s manual inspection process to improve quality, reliability and efficiency.
Previously, a Toyota team member would carry out manual specification checks on a vehicle to assure the quality and specification of the vehicle before passing it on to the dealership. Acrovision says replacing that human decision-making process could not be achieved using traditional “rule-based” camera technology. It designed a solution combining Cognex’s VisionPro PC Vision platform and ViDi Deep Learning tools that could communicate directly with Toyota’s host tracking system, providing the required individual vehicle information, which in turn determines what inspections are required for that particular vehicle.
To automate inspections of vehicles leaving the assembly line, Acrovision's solution for one of Toyota's UK manufacturing plants involved integrating 17 x GiGi PC Cameras with external lights, Cognex’s VisionPro PC Vision platform and ViDi Deep Learning tools (Image: Acrovision)
This solution consisted of 17 x GiGi PC Cameras with external lights, which are fitted onto the inspection line. As the vehicle moves along the track, the cameras are triggered multiple times to acquire images of the various inspection areas. These images are communicated back to the central PC for processing and decision-making using a combination of the VPro and Deep Learning ViDi tools.
All relevant data is fed back to Toyota’s tracking system for logging of results / defects. This triggers any faulty vehicles to be removed at the next checkpoint for corrections to be made.
According to Acrovision, Toyota now has a solution that automates its vehicle inspection checks, removing the requirement for human inspectors to move around the vehicle.
After the installation, Marios Souzou, Engineer at Toyota Manufacturing UK, said: “We have now increased our quality and productivity while decreasing cost and I am more certain than ever that our customers receive the highest-quality vehicles.”
