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The VDMA Machine Vision sector group is forecasting a 10% drop in sales in nominal terms for the machine vision industry in Europe this year. The sales outlook has deteriorated compared to the April forecast (minus 3%) with no anticipated growth envisaged for 2025. The industry is expecting new impetus from the world's leading trade fair VISION.
"The manufacturing industry is the most important customer for the European machine vision industry, with a market share of 71% for systems and 62% for components," says Mark Williamson, Chairman of VDMA Machine Vision. “In Germany, Europe's largest economy, orders for this sector in July 2024 were 4.3% lower than in the same month a year earlier, after adjusting for calendar effects. This is having a dampening effect on demand for machine vision products in the short term. In the medium to long term, however, the industry's success story will continue, as machine vision remains a key automation technology.”
New sales areas
Overall, the market environment for machine vision is benefiting from a broad automation trend. This applies both to the manufacturing industry and non-manufacturing. In fact, demand for machine vision systems outside the manufacturing industry rose by 5% to a market share of 29% in 2023 continuing the trend for machine vision conquering new application fields. The three most important areas of application here are Intelligent traffic systems, with a revenue share of 61%, logistics & postal sorting (20%) and medical equipment (7%).
Demand for machine vision components is even higher outside the manufacturing industry, accounting for 38% of sales. Medical equipment accounts for 34% of component sales, followed by intelligent transport systems (18%) and logistics & mail sorting (12%).
Top applications by turnover
With a share of 34%, inspection applications are the strongest sales segment for machine vision systems. These include applications for quality control, printing and surface inspection systems. Applications for robotics and automated assembly follow with a 23% share of sales, while object recognition accounts for 16%.
AI technology on the rise
In terms of technology trends, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) has now become an important sales driver: According to the VDMA survey "Machine Vision in Europe", the share of sales of products in which AI is a dominating enabler of the solution rose to 19% in 2023. More than two thirds of respondents state that AI is a driving force for the current and future machine vision business.
Impetus expected from VISION, the world's leading trade fair
The complete spectrum of machine vision technology will be presented at VISION in Stuttgart: Trend topics such as artificial intelligence, hyperspectral imaging, embedded vision and 3D will be presented and discussed by experts. The trade fair will kick off with a record number of exhibitors: around 500 exhibiting companies from Germany and abroad will showcase their new developments and innovations to an international audience for three days.
