At VISION 2016, from November 8-10 in Stuttgart, I held quite a few conversations with machine vision and imaging industry veterans and experts. One such interview was with industrial LED lighting company Smart Vision Lights, where I spoke with Casey Segraves, Business Development Manager and Tony Carpenter, Business Development Manager for Europe and Asia about their company, industry trends, future growth areas, and more.
Sitting down at a small table in the corner of their booth on the show floor, a number of smaller LED lights (pictured) lay atop some company literature. These, according to Segraves, are products that had been in the pipeline for a while, and that the company is particularly excited about.
"These are compact, smaller field of view lighting products," he said. "We are known as a larger light company, but we want to be known as an overall lighting company with a well-rounded offering. This way, companies currently, and considering doing business with SVL will think of SVL beyond our present reputation. "
When asked about possible growth areas for both the company and the industry overall, Carpenter quickly cited robotics, and Segraves agreed, noting that many diffused back and panel lighting products are being deployed in all kinds of applications. These include robotics and conveyor applications in industrial automation. In 2014-2015, Smart Vision Lights offered a limited amount of diffused lighting solutions, but since then, there has been substantial effort to increase such product offerings, he noted.
In terms of significant news regarding the company, Segraves noted that MultiDrive technology will be included in all new products. This is a built-in constant-current driver that allows the light to operate in either continuous on, standard strobe, and ultra-intense OverDrive strobe mode.
“We are the first to machine vision lighting manufacturer offer built-in driver technology as standard for all of our lights,” he noted. “Difficulties exist with external drivers and this helps solve that. No need to worry about housing, wiring, and no need to to worry about multiple components—just one.” In the past, SVL offered two separate models that included a standard model, operating in either continuous on or standard strobe mode, and OverDrive ultra-intense strobe only model. Multi-Drive allows SVL to streamline their offering by allowing a single light to perform all three modes.
Carpenter noted that the reasoning behind this was to make it easier for the end user.
“We really think about how easy something is going to be to use, when it comes to developing a new product,” he said.
Later in the interview, I asked about product development, and whether market trends or changes affect the way they approach this.
“We’ve always let the market drive our products,” Segraves said. “Being who we are, we can easily pivot and help customers with quick solutions. This is big for us, and we are at a spot now where we can offer a full lineup of products.”
Smart Vision Lights continues to work with custom requests as well, as Segraves explained that the company has an established business that lets them support custom requests.
“They bring ideas to us, and we react,” he said.
View more information on Smart Vision Lights.
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