After the largest economic crisis in 60 years, Vision 2010 is now benefiting from a sharp upturn in the economy, mainly in Germany. The willingness of the industry to invest is currently exceeding even the most confident expectations of economic forecasters. Many exhibitors are reporting a marked improvement in orders booked. According to the VDMA Machine Vision (German Engineering Federation for Machine Vision), many companies report increasing orders from user industries, including machinery and plant engineering, the plastics and rubber industry, robotics and the electronics industry.

The show is taking place from November 9-11, at the new Stuttgart Trade Fair Centre. For the first time more than 300 exhibitors have registered. Last year the number was 293; this year 323 exhibitors. At the same time the international character of the exhibitors has grown from 42% to 44% in 2010. An accompanying program provides multiple perspectives on machine vision applications and solutions.

Twenty seven countries are represented: including the USA (32 exhibitors), Japan (14), Great Britain (13), and the Netherlands and Switzerland (10 exhibitors each). The exhibitors are showcasing machine vision and identification components, including smart, matrix, and linescan camera systems, high-speed and infrared cameras, vision sensors, frame grabbers, software tools and libraries, lighting, objectives, and optical filters, as well as accessories and application solutions and services for complete systems.

Vision Award goes to Sick

The Vision Award--the Award for Applied Machine Vision--was presented to Sick (Waldkirch, Germany), for the 3-D color camera ColorRanger. The Vision Award is worth EURO 5000. The jury included Dieter-Josef Walter, Daimler AG; Don Braggins, Machine Vision System Consultancy; Hermann Tropf, Vision Tools; and Martin Wäny from Awaiba Lda. The jury members chose from a total of 28 submissions.

German government sponsors young companies

The Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology (BMWi) sponsored ten exhibition places for new companies that are inexperienced as trade fair participants. The BMWi assumes 80% of the costs for the stand construction and rent. In addition, the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) helps with marketing advice.