The industry is forecasting growth of up to 10% for 2018; the VDMA intends to publish exact figures in June. "The machine vision industry is in the fast lane and will remain so for some time to come," says Anne Wendel, Head of the VDMA Machine Vision Department. For Europe, the VDMA is forecasting an increase in turnover of 15% in 2017 and 10% in the current year; in 2016, growth amounted to 11%.

The industry has been reporting uninterrupted sales and growth records since 2010. Machine vision is on trend: "As a key technology, it is not only increasingly being used in the global automation race in traditional industries, but is also constantly conquering new areas of application," explains Anne Wendel. "Standards, networking, simple integration and digitalization remain growth drivers. Embedded vision and machine learning are opening up completely new areas and will give the industry new impetus for growth."

Dr. Olaf Munkelt, Managing Director of MVTec Software, agrees: "We are seeing a continuing trend towards the automation of production processes and machines, which is boosting demand for machine vision technology." Dr. Dietmar Ley, CEO of Basler, points to the high demand for automation in Asia: "In China and its neighbouring countries, the level of automation has not been too high so far, but now investments there have increased significantly." And in the traditional markets, "companies are investing in automation in order to remain competitive," emphasizes Mark Williamson, Director Corporate Market Development at Stemmer Imaging. Both of these factors are giving image processing technology a boost.

Dr. Heiko Frohn, Managing Director Technology at Vitronic Dr.-Ing. Stein Bildverarbeitungssysteme, also sees demand increasing worldwide: "With the trend towards digitalized production, the hunger for process knowledge and quality data is growing. Hardly any other sensor technology can make as great a contribution here as image processing." Dr. Klaus-Henning Noffz, CEO of Silicon Software, sees standards as the turbocharger of industry growth: "They have been one of the reasons for the veritable boom in the machine vision industry in recent years and are a key to further industry growth. Components and systems with standardized interfaces accelerate the market availability of new applications and solutions."

The European machine vision industry in 2016

Turnover in the German machine vision industry from 2006 to 2017

© VDMA Robotics+Automation

In 2016, the European machine vision industry generated around 61% of its sales in Europe itself, 23% in Asia and 15% in North and South America, with Asia's share growing significantly, Europe's falling slightly and America's remaining roughly the same. The largest national market for the European machine vision industry is Germany, with a sales volume of around EUR 550 million, followed by North America with a good EUR 250 million and China with a good EUR 180 million, with the Chinese market's share increasing significantly. The main customer sector for the European machine vision industry in 2016 was the automotive industry with a 19% share, followed by the food, beverage and tobacco industry (including filling and packaging) with around 14%, the electrical and electronics industry with a good 13% and the semiconductor industry (including solar cells) with a good 12%.

Image processing trade fair Vision on the upswing

The good economic situation in the industry will of course not stop at the machine vision technology trade fair Vision, which will take place from 6 to 8 November 2018: "We are expecting more than 450 exhibitors at Vision this year for the first time," emphasizes Florian Niethammer, Team Leader at Messe Stuttgart. "More than 300 companies have already registered, around 60 percent of them from abroad; we have gained over 50 new exhibitors." At the last Vision in 2016, 440 exhibitors were represented. He cites embedded vision, hyperspectral imaging and deep learning as trends in image processing technology - "they will shape the face of Vision 2018".

Composites Europe, the European Trade Fair & Forum for Composites, Technology and Applications, and Intervitis Interfructa Hortitechnica, the technology trade fair for wine, fruit juice and special crops, will take place at the Stuttgart exhibition center at the same time as Vision 2018. Florian Niethammer sees particular synergy potential between this and Vision in view of the trend towards Agriculture 4.0 and precision farming.