The UK Industrial Vision Association (UKIVA), a special-interest group of the Processing & Packaging Machinery Association, announced Tuesday that it has added three new membership categories to reflect the changing face of the industrial vision industry in the UK. The new categories are: “Vision Technology Providers,” “Vision Systems Integrators & Consultants” and “Providers of Solutions That Utilize Machine Vision.” The “Academic” membership — free of charge to academic institutions and organizations — will continue as before. A new membership document that highlights the membership benefits of the association is now available at www.ukiva.org/join.html. The new categories will help existing members, potential new members and vision customers alike, said UKIVA Chairman Mark Williamson. “There are plenty of end-user and OEM customers who want to be able to buy anything from individual components such as cameras or light sources to complete vision systems. For these customers, it is clear that the ‘vision technology providers’ are the people to contact.” A number of companies have emerged that specialize in working with manufacturers to integrate vision systems into new or existing production lines, Williamson said. “We want to encourage more of these integrators and consultants to join the UKIVA, so we have created the new ‘Vision System Integrator & Consultants’ category, which will enable them to be found by prospective customers more easily.” The “Providers of Solutions That Utilize Machine Vision” category will provide additional visibility for companies in the vision market whose products make use of vision as part of their functionality. As an incentive to small companies to join, the association will offer a 50 percent membership fee reduction to integrators or consultants with a turnover of less than £200,000 (about $304,000). The committee also has the flexibility to consider turnovers up to £500,000 on a case-by-case basis, Williamson said. For more information, visit: www.ukiva.org