leader in vision technology Cognex Corporation

leaDer in vision technology

Cognex Corporation is the world’s leading provider of vision technology and industrial barcode readers used in manufacturing automation. The company has been achieving impressive year-on-year growth and with the anticipated rise in automation and robotics, the trend is likely to continue. Romana Moares spoke to Sven Klockmann, the Business Development Manager for Mobile Terminals based in Germany, about the company’s focus on innovation and new products designed to fully meet the current market requirements.

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets a range of products that incorporate sophisticated machine vision technology giving them the ability to ‘see’. Its products include barcode readers, machine vision sensors, and machine vision systems that are used in factories, warehouses, and distribution centres around the world to guide, gauge, inspect, identify, and assure the quality of items during the manufacturing and distribution process.

The company is the world’s leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 1 million vision-based products, representing over $4 billion in cumulative revenue, since its founding in 1981. In October 2017, Cognex reported record results for the third quarter of 2017 and forecasts for the fourth quarter indicate expected growth exceeding 30 per cent year-on-year.

Right time, right place

Cognex vision helps companies improve product quality, eliminate production errors, lower manufacturing costs and exceed consumer expectations for high quality products at an affordable price. Typical applications for machine vision include detecting defects, monitoring production lines, guiding assembly robots, and tracking, sorting and identifying parts. The company serves an international customer base from offices

located throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia, and through a global network of integration and distribution partners. It is headquartered close to Boston in Natick, Massachusetts, USA.

“We are today’s market leader in the vision industry and to be a technology leader has always been the key company objective since its inception,” says Mr Klockmann. “Our company is probably the one in the market with the highest budget for R&D, amounting each year to about 15 per cent of total revenues.”

He confirms that in light of market development and increasing focus on automation and robotisation, the company is ready to expand and increase staff numbers from the current roughly 1500 by another 300. “We are recruiting a relatively high number of new talents worldwide, including in Europe and Germany. We are sourcing people from various industries and are lucky to be renowned for our focus on innovation and thus attractive for prospective candidates. In Germany alone, we plan to open another office in Munich and expand the base in Berlin.

“Of course the Industry 4.0 trend has boosted growth, but we have always been focused on automation and started well ahead of time. The very purpose of our devices is to provide more accurate information at the right time, i.e. all types of information that is required by the users. We are in the very right sector at the right time,” says Sven Klockmann.

Globally sought-after

Cognex continues to invest heavily in its core vision technology. In many cases its R&D investment alone is greater than some competitors’ total annual revenue. The company has over 660 patents issued or pending worldwide. The current focus includes, for example, mobile terminals, for which it offers unique products integrating smartphones and high-performance vision tools. The MX-1000 series and MX-1502 series visionenabled mobile terminals have many applications – the MX-1000 is ideal for reading DPM codes on automotive parts and label-based barcodes on packages and equipment, while the MX-1502 reads codes from as near as 15–30cm to as far as 8m away, making it ideal for scanning barcodes on floor labels, rack labels on high shelves and slips hanging from warehouse ceilings. The Cognex Mobile Barcode SDK provides enterprise-grade barcode scanning capabilities from a smartphone, tablet, or MX Series mobile terminal.

“This is a new market which will definitely grow. The main differentiation that we provide is the integration of an ordinary smart phone into the barcode reading device. Long ago we decided that we will never compete with Samsung or Apple in terms of smart devices, but that we do it using their computing experience and integrate it with our device,” says Mr Klockmann. The MX-1502 leverages the latest communication technologies supported by mobile devices including 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more. In this respect, the company cooperates, for example, with the open source platform developer Red Hat enabling the user to self-create their own mobile apps that can be managed online in the cloud. The user can manage the whole process and be self-sufficient.

“Our mobile terminals find application across many sectors, including electronics, medical devices, logistics and many more. The main users tend to be logistics operators, distribution companies and of course manufacturers for various industries including automotive,” says Mr Klockmann. “Geographically, we see a lot of demand in China and the Far East, but to be honest all markets including Europe and the Americas are driving our growth.”

Mr Klockmann mentions another fast-growing market: 3D vision systems to optimise product quality by providing three-dimensional inspection. “To meet the needs of our customers, Cognex decided to invest in products which can perform more and better 3D inspection on stationary or moving parts. In the past two years, we have acquired several companies with advanced technology knowledge. It is exciting to see these technologies, e.g. in the field of 3D vision or deep learning, in the hands of our R & D teams and being transformed into more marketable products. Stay tuned.” n