It looks like machine vision systems became even more popular last year. The North American machine vision market grew 14.4 percent to more than $1,517 million, according to the Quarterly Machine Vision Report from Vision Systems International (VSI). Nello Zuech, VSI's president, attributes a big chunk of that growth to application-specific "turnkey" systems, particularly those used in semiconductor manufacturing. "Capital spending in the semiconductor market grew about 20 percent last year, and machine vision sales into that market grew proportionally," Zuech says, adding that semiconductor manufacturing typically accounts for 20 to 25 percent of the total machine vision market. The market for configurable, general-purpose machine vision products grew by a smaller amount last year–by 4.6 percent to $331.7 million. Looking ahead to this year, Zuech expects that capital spending in semiconductor, automotive and other key industries won't be high enough to drive any additional machine vision growth in North America. "The market will most likely be flat in 2007, which isn't so bad given that 2006 was a really good year," he says.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
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Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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