North American Machine Vision Orders Slow in First Quarter of 2019

North American sales of machine vision (MV) components and systems that
provide vision intelligence to robots and other machines declined 4.5
percent over the same period last year. According to statistics from the AIA,
the industry’s trade group part of the Association
for Advancing Automation (A3), financial transactions for the entire
market contracted to $674 million, with sales of MV components down 12.6
percent to $93 million and sales of MV systems down 3.1 percent to $579
million.

“Based on what we were hearing from our member companies at the end of
last year and into the new year, we expected the statistics to reflect
fewer sales for the quarter,” said Alex Shikany, vice president of
membership and business intelligence at A3. “The semiconductor industry,
which is a leading indicator for machine vision, showed signs of
contraction at the end of last year, which led us to believe lower sales
figures might’ve been ahead to begin 2019. Fortunately, machine vision
technologies are still becoming smarter and smaller to fit within
in-demand automation applications such as AI-driven bin picking,
autonomous vehicles, and advanced inspection technologies, which is a
positive indicator for the future health of this industry.”

Mixed Expectations Predicted for Future MV Sales

According to AIA’s latest survey of industry experts, 41 percent believe
machine vision component sales in total will increase, 39 percent
believe they will remain flat and 21 percent are bracing for further
declines. There is more consensus for machine vision systems markets
with 71 percent of respondents expecting flat performance, 23 percent
expecting increases and only 6 percent bracing for declines. Overall,
two-thirds (66 percent) of respondents believe the overall machine
vision market in North America will remain flat in the next six months.

Learn more about the machine vision market and innovation in the
technologies at the Collaborative
Robots, Advanced Vision & AI Conference (CRAV.ai) – November
12–13, 2019, San Jose, California.

About AIA
AIA was established in 1984 to advance the
understanding and use of imaging and vision technologies and to drive
global expansion and growth through education and promotion. Today, AIA
continues its mission and represents some 380 vision suppliers, system
integrators, users, researchers, and consulting firms from 32 countries.
For more information, please visit www.visiononline.org

About Association for Advancing Automation (A3)
The
Association for Advancing Automation is the global advocate for the
benefits of automating. A3 promotes automation technologies and ideas
that transform the way business is done. A3 is the umbrella group for
Robotic Industries Association (RIA), AIA - Advancing Vision + Imaging,
Motion Control & Motor Association (MCMA), and A3 Mexico. RIA, AIA, MCMA
and A3 Mexico combined represent more than 1,200 automation
manufacturers, component suppliers, system integrators, end users,
research groups, and consulting firms from throughout the world that
drive automation forward. For more information, visit: A3, RIA, AIA, MCMA, A3
Mexico.

Other upcoming A3 Events:
Autonomous
Mobile Robot Conference – September 17, 2019, Louisville, Kentucky
MCMA
TechCon – October 7–10, 2019, Indianapolis, Indiana
International
Robot Safety Conference – October 15–17, 2019, Indianapolis

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