Due to increasing need of improving manufacturing production capacity and growing demand for international quality products from consumers, the demand for these systems is rising globally. In addition, shortage of skilled workers, increasing wages and manufacturing errors increases economic burdens on manufacturers. Owing to these, the global manufacturers are seeking for automated process utilization and quality management solutions to improve their sustainability in competitive environments. It also drastically reduces manufacturing errors and helps manufacturer to maintain consistent quality of product. In addition, it reduces production wastage and number of labors required in case of manual inspection. These are some factors which are expected to increase the demand of this market.
By components, surface vision and inspection cameras (SVIC) accounted for largest revenue share of 48.1% of the overall components market in 2012. Continuous advancement in micro-chips used in camera systems helps camera manufacturers to produce more smaller, reliable and cheaper cameras. In the last two decades manufacturers has shifted towards digital and smart cameras as they are more reliable and efficient than analog cameras. These advanced cameras provide better productivity and cost cut backs to manufacturers. Software and hardware components are expected to see the fastest growth due to growing demand for sophisticated software solutions that improves integration of surface vision and inspection systems with other factory automation products.
By type, computer based systems accounted for the largest revenue share of the overall surface vision and inspection market. These are cable of handling more complex operations at greater speed. In addition, these systems can be easily upgraded with advanced software and hardware as per requirements. This makes a computer based systems more customizable and preferred by many manufacturers over camera systems. However, demand of smart camera based systems is increasing among small and medium size manufacturers as it is cheaper and easily integrated with existing manufacturing facility. Moreover, camera based systems is expected to see the fastest growth with continuous development in smart cameras to handle complex applications.
While in case of application, semiconductor, automotive, electronics and electrical industries accounted for more than 60% of the overall surface vision and inspection market in 2012. Due to minute and ever needing testing applications of chips and fabricated systems, semiconductor manufacturing industry is expected to remain the largest end-use segment for surface vision and inspection systems. However, Demand of these systems is expected to increase rapidly in pharmaceutical, packaging and food industry. This is due to introduction of stricter manufacturing and inspection regulations globally.
By Geography, Asia-Pacific (APAC) accounted for 32.3% of the overall revenue share in 2012. This region is expected to maintain its dominating market share throughout the forecast period. This is due to estimated market of growing factory automation and other advanced automation industries in India, China, Taiwan, Australia, Thailand and many other emerging countries in this region.
