The Integration Area, a platform in which system integrators and system suppliers will present their machine vision solutions, will again be present at VISION 2012, International Trade Fair for Machine Vision (MV). The area at VISION 2012, which will take place from November 6th to the 8th, 2012 in Stuttgart, Germany, will be directly located in the entrance area of Hall 1 since the high-tech trade fair featuring the latest cameras, sensors, frame grabbers, illumination systems, lasers, optics, lenses, software, machine vision systems, application solutions and services is moving on the occasion of its 25th anniversary to the largest hall at the Stuttgart Trade Fair Centre.
“No production line and, in particular, no requirement relating to a system is identical to another”, said Angelika Wichmann, Managing Director of ISW GmbH. “Generally speaking, the user expects the system integrator to provide a complete service from project analysis and implementation through to system acceptance and service readiness, including training”, said Meinrad Borho, Managing Director of Visuelle Technik GmbH. In his opinion, criteria such as extensive MV skills, experience of mechanical processes, reliability, creativity, national and international availability, preferably geographical proximity and short reaction times by an integrator must be fulfilled.
“The problems with which users come to us are characterized by demands such as high accuracy in measuring and test tasks with short cycle times”, said Catrin Urbanneck of GPP Chemnitz mbH. According to the Software Manager, users failed with compact MV systems in the past because they had underestimated the complexity of the task. “Success was then achieved in this case with multi-camera systems, which were developed and used by GPP and can communicate with one another, or with a combination of area scan cameras, line cameras, other sensors or software,” said Urbanneck.
Experts from Visuelle Technik GmbH also believe that user-specific multi-camera systems are prime application areas for machine vision including complex identification tasks. The system integrator has therefore successfully developed and installed a multi-camera system comprising three area scan cameras and two line cameras to inspect shaft seal rings for the automotive component supply industry.
“The problems of our users generally involve semi-automated or fully automated production. Machine vision systems firstly support the production processes and secondly ensure product quality, ideally straight after every production step so that non-OK parts can be ejected straightaway”, said Rolf Schneider, Managing Director of Visotect GmbH. The system integrator primarily concentrates on the development and production of user-specific systems for automatic full control, for robot positioning or for reading codes and plain text. “In future machine vision will be integrated even more closely in statistical process control”, predicted Schneider. In his opinion, growing demands on the quality and reliability of products have increased the need for measuring and test equipment. “An increase in product type diversity can also be seen. Machine vision systems must be able to cope with this in terms of their flexibility in order to ensure short changeover times. However, complexity must be manageable in regard to investment and maintenance costs“, concluded Schneider.
The Integration Area at VISION 2012 will provide visitors from a wide range of industries with numerous opportunities to find a solution for every application problem. The special platform is being sponsored by the magazine “Inspect”. VISION proves with this concept that it is strongly oriented towards market requirements and is not just a components event, but also increasingly a forum for end user. The trade fair is expected to attract around 360 exhibitors, 40 per cent of whom come from abroad.
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