The German machine vision industry achieved record sales of 2.6 billion euros in 2017 - an increase of 17% compared to the previous year. This means that the industry's turnover has doubled within ten years. This was reported by the VDMA Machine Vision department. The industry association sees the reason for the boom in the fact that machine vision technology "made in Germany" is not only increasingly being used in the global automation race in traditional industries, but is also conquering completely new sectors. The industry-driven platform expects growth to continue in 2018 with an increase in turnover of seven percent to 2.8 billion euros.

This development is also being felt by Messe Stuttgart as the organizer of the trade fair for machine vision, Vision. The industry event has been expanding continuously for years and this year will also surpass the previous event: the rented exhibition space in 2016 increased to over 11,000 square meters and will continue to grow to more than 12,000 square meters in 2018. For the first time, the gallery in the L-Bank Forum (Hall 1) will also be occupied with stands. The number of exhibitors also exceeded the record of 440 companies from 2016 with more than 460. Particularly pleasing for Messe Stuttgart and an expression of the dynamic industry development are the approximately 25 percent of exhibitors who are presenting at Vision for the first time in 2018.

Trend towards internationalization continues
In 2016, 57% of exhibitors came from abroad; this year, the proportion will be more than 60%. The current VDMA figures also confirm a continuing trend towards internationalization: while the industry recorded an eight percent increase in sales in the German market in 2017, exports grew by 23 percent. The two most important export countries remained China and North America, which together account for 26% of the German machine vision industry's total turnover.

"Machine vision as a driver of Industry 4.0 has become an integral part of the modern factory and has long since conquered our everyday lives," says Dr. Olaf Munkelt, Managing Director of MVTec and Chairman of the VDMA Machine Vision Division. "Whether traffic guidance systems, autonomous driving, waste separation and recycling or healthcare - machine vision makes it possible. Embedded vision in combination with deep learning provides further impetus for growth." Florian Niethammer, Project Manager of Vision, shares this assessment: "The industry's trending topics are naturally also the focus of Vision. Industry experts, but also trade visitors who have had little contact with machine vision so far, will have the opportunity to be inspired by practical examples, discuss their challenges and requirements with experts and gather ideas for innovative applications in their own work." as