European and German Machine Vision Market Shows Strong Development in 2016

Machine Vision System sales in Germany and Europe developed with a year-over-year growth of around 8 percent in 2016, according to a recently published report by the German machine builders association (VDMA).  Sales in Germany reached 2.2 billion Euros making it by far the largest European market for machine vision systems representing one third in market shares within Europe.

The automotive industry is the most important customer for companies offering machine vision systems with almost 20 percent share in sales.  Other important end user industries are electronics and electrical including semiconductors as well as the food & beverage industry.  The particular reason that machine vision is applied in such industries is the high amount of quality control and track and tracing throughout the whole product lifecycle.  Especially in the food & beverage industry end users are forced to invest in new quality assurance and tracking systems to withhold the increasing regulatory requirements.

While machine vision systems originally are applied in typical industrial environments as shown by the distribution of the market shares within end user industries, non-industrial applications swiftly adopt machine vision for new innovative tasks.  Examples are "identification of groceries without barcodes in supermarkets, railway monitoring in the london underground, and sorting of prawns on fishing boats", says Dr. Olaf Munkelt from the VDMA.  The share of non-industrial machine vision sales in 2015 already reached 24 percent with an annual growth of 14 percent.  Growth drivers were intelligent traffic control systems, medical diagnosis and surgery technolgy, and safety and surveillance.

Looking at the development in 2016 and onwards the VDMA states that further growth is to be expected.  While 2016 showed strong development especially in Germany, increasing demand is expected coming from electronics and automotive markets in China, Korea, and Japan.  The US as the most important trading partner for Germany is also presenting itself as a driver for growth in the machine vision market since efforts to increase automation are on the rise.  The above mentioned non-industrial applications will also contribute a significant amount to growth in the years to come.