OCTOBER 26--VISION, International Trade Fair for Machine Vision and Identification Technologies (Stuttgart, Germany; www.vision-messe.de), closed its doors last week after three, at times, very lively days. More than 4600 visitors, 5% more than in 2003, from about 40 countries came to Stuttgart.
It was apparent that VISION has become even more international, as there was a further increase in the number of visitors and exhibitors from outside Germany. Nearly one in two visitors (45%) traveled a distance of 300 km or more to VISION. The proportion of foreign visitors rose from 20% to 30% this year.
Exhibitors were very satisfied with this development. "We were pleased with the high proportion of foreign visitors," enthused Gabriele Jansen, manager corporate development, ISRA Vision Systems, Darmstadt, Germany. "We found our customers in Stuttgart and therefore fulfilled out expectations."
Thirty-nine percent (2003: 35%) of the 182 exhibitors actually came from abroad. They primarily presented machine-vision systems and components, for example, cameras, frame grabbers, optical and lighting solutions, processors, software tools, machine-vision and identification systems, as well as services. The proportion of top decision-makers rose from 25% to 33%. By their account, a total of 94% of all visitors are involved in purchasing and procurement decisions.
"Machine vision is the innovative key to productivity, quality, and cost-efficiency, that is, to increased competitiveness," said Volker Pape, chairman of the Machine Vision Group in the German Engineering Federation (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbauer (VDMA)."Our industry is, therefore, looking to the future with optimism and is expecting a further increase of 10% in total turnover to €915 million."
Messe Stuttgart has been honoring the growing interest in the technology for 11 years with the VISION Award, presented for highly innovative developments. This year the VISION Award was won by Inos Automationssoftware GmbH from Stuttgart (www.inos-automation.de). The company won for its solution to the problem of "absolute inline measurement during movement including process capability."
VISION will be held again next year at the Stuttgart Exhibition Centre from 8 to 10 November 2005.