North American MV Market Grew in 2011

Machine vision components and systems sales in North America increased 5 percent in 2011 to nearly $1.9 billion, according to the global trade group AIA of Ann Arbor, Mich. Machine vision components grew 13 percent, while application-specific systems grew 2 percent, said Paul Kellett, AIA’s director of market analysis. He also said that the first half of 2011 was much stronger than the second half, when overall economic growth began to slow. “As vision becomes more critical to a growing number of industries, we expect to see continued growth in both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing sectors,” said AIA President Jeff Burnstein.