North American sales of machine vision components and systems have reached $709 million in the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 19 per cent year-on-year, according to statistics issued by AIA, the industry’s trade group.
The record quarter is a continuation of the strong growth the machine vision sector experienced in 2017 in Europe – Germany in particular – and in North America.
The machine vision components category grew 28 per cent to a new record high of $107 million during the first quarter of 2018. The growth in components was primarily driven by camera sales, which increased 44 per cent to $65 million. Optics (16 per cent to $12 million) and software (9 per cent to $5 million) markets also experienced growth.
The machine vision systems category increased 17 per cent to $597 million in the first quarter of 2018. Within the systems category, sales of smart cameras climbed 26 per cent to $109 million, while application specific machine vision (ASMV) systems grew 16 per cent to $488 million.
'Our most recent poll of industry experts revealed that 45 per cent of respondents expect the market to increase over the next two quarters, 42 per cent predict stagnation, and 13 per cent are bracing for a decline,' said Alex Shikany, vice president at AIA. 'We continue to see demand for vision systems that are smaller, intuitive, cost effective, and complementary to a more connected automation system. It’s an exciting time to be in this field with the innovation we’re seeing at every turn.'
'Vision technology is being integrated in a growing number of automation applications today because the technology is enabling new ways to solve complex challenges,' said AIA president Jeff Burnstein. 'Growing global trends such as autonomous vehicles, AI, and unmanned aerial vehicles rely heavily on vision and imaging, which bodes well for the future of this industry.'
