Big Changes in Little Time

JAMES SCHLETT, EDITOR, james.schlett@photonics.com

Two years ago we launched Industrial Photonics with the goal of covering the rapidly changing light-based technologies used in industrial settings and processes. Even during the short time between then and now, manufacturers have seen huge advancements in laser, sensor, machine vision and automation technologies, which remain the core focus of this publication. Without question, the coming years will bring even greater change. Some of that change, according to Research and Markets, will be driven by rising labor wages in China and stricter regulatory mandates in manufac- turing industries. By 2020, the machine vision industry alone is forecast to grow to $12.5 billion from $8.08 billion last year.

Industrial Photonics will continue to follow the technology as it changes, providing our readers with insights from industry experts at cutting-edge companies such as Cognex Corp., MVTec Software, Optotune Switzerland AG and Teledyne Dalsa, each of which provided articles for this month’s issue. In his cover story, “The Role of Machine Vision in the Automotive Industry,” (read article) Maximilian Lückenhaus, the head of the Marketing and Sales business unit at MVTec, provides an excellent overview of machine vision’s role in the automotive industry. He highlights how image data processing has moved beyond 2D and the horizontal conveyor belt. New 3D vision technology reaches to all areas of the automated car assembly process, including quality assurance, robot control, identification technologies and final assembly.

Other articles found in this month’s Industrial Photonics include:

• “Composite Pattern-Matching Algorithms Identify All the Good Parts,” by Cognex’s David J. Michael (read article).

• “Bringing a Third Dimension to Laser Materials Processing,” by Optotune’s David Stadler and Jörg Wertli (read article).

• “New Technologies Enable Machine Vision to Reach New Horizons,” by Teledyne Dalsa’s Eric Carey (read article).

Your comments and insights are important to us. Please send them to me at james.schlett@photonics.com.

James Schlett