High camera order intake & promising new products.

The industrial camera manufacturer, IDS Imaging Development Systems,  was able to exceed industry expectations in the first half of 2021. Instead of the 7% increase in turnover forecast by the VDMA for the machine vision industry, the company has so far generated more than double this growth.

The company expects consistently high growth until the end of 2021. The positive order situation and the strong development of foreign business give the camera manufacturer every reason to do so, despite the challenging procurement situation. Compared to the same period in the previous year the increase in turnover was particularly strong in North America.

The company bases its growth forecast for the VISION year 2021 primarily on the new IDS NXT cameras with artificial intelligence, as well as on the high demand in the 3D segment. New products, such as the cost-effective, industrial-grade Ensenso S, will explicitly complement the IDS product range in these areas. IDS is also expanding the uEye portfolio with new sensors and a new small C-mount housing camera – especially in the low-cost range for particularly price-sensitive and high-volume applications. On the software side, the new SDK IDS peak with many modern programming interfaces and new convenience functions promises real added value for both uEye and uEye+ users.

"We are developing innovative products and platforms in order to continually set new impulses for our customers and partners with new powerful solutions," explains Managing Director Jan Hartmann. By establishing its own development unit in Serbia last year, the industrial camera manufacturer has already paved the way for even more active AI research and development. "Cameras and artificial intelligence, a combination that allows IDS to reinvent itself and contribute to shaping the future." In the area of tension between increasing demand, high standards of efficiency and sustainability as well as security of supply, embedded vision solutions with AI – such as IDS NXT – are becoming more and more important.

With the online platform visionbay, IDS has now also opened a virtual marketplace for image processing with AI. There, users can access the know-how of experts in the field of artificial intelligence, get access to complete image processing solutions and thus save valuable development time.

@IDS_Imaging  @mepaxIntPR #PAuto #Vision 

New chairman selected for processing & packaging entity.

The Director- Corporate Market Development at Stemmer Imaging, Mark Williamson, has been elected as the next Chairman of the PPMA (Processing & Packaging Machinery Association). He has also been elected to serve on the Board of VDMA Machine Vision for the next three years.

Mark Williamson

The PPMA is the Britain's trade association for suppliers of processing and packaging machinery to world markets and represents over 400 member and associate companies. VDMA Machine Vision is a subgroup within the VDMA Robotics + Automation Association in Germany, with over 100 member companies supplying machine vision components and systems for both manufacturing and non-manufacturing applications across Europe.

Williamson is a former Chairman of the UKIVA (UK Industrial Vision Association) and joined the PPMA Board in 2010 when the UKIVA became a special interest group of the PPMA and continues to be an active member of the UKIVA committee. He becomes Vice-Chair to current PPMA Chairman, Grant Jamieson, from December 2015 and will take up his 2-year appointment as Chairman in December 2016. In 2018 he will revert to the position of Vice-Chair for a further year to support the then incoming Chairman.

Williamson commented: “It is a great honour to be invited to take up two such important roles in the industry. Having served for 12 years as UKIVA Chairman and been part of the PPMA Board for 5 years I have seen a significant growth in the adoption of vision technology in the processing and packaging industry. I look forward to further developing the interests of the processing and packaging sector as a whole during my tenure as Chairman.”

“As one of three non-German members on the new Board of VDMA Machine Vision, I also look forward, together with my colleagues from Belgium and Italy, to bringing a pan-European perspective to VDMA Machine Vision,” he continued. “With individual trade associations playing an important role in representing local vision companies' interests, our aim is to further broaden understanding of the market opportunities across different countries.”

Device profile for pumps

CANopen device profile for pumps (CiA 450) released

The Task Force (TF) pumps of the CAN in Automation (CiA) international users’ and manufacturers’ group has published the version 1.0 of the CANopen device profile for pumps (CiA 450). The profile specifies the CANopen interfaces for generic and liquid pumps. On request, the CANopen interfaces for process vacuum and turbo vacuum pumps will be specified, too. The specification is based on the bus-independent profile for pumps developed by VDMA (German association of machine builders).

The profile defines the pump configuration data, control and status information as well as the values measured by the pump electronics. Operation behavior of the pumps is controlled via the defined state machines. Via Emergency messages failures, warnings or alarms are indicated to the user. Also multiple pumps may be operated via the same CANopen interface. The profile is currently available for CiA members.