COGNEX EXPANDS INSPECTION CAPABILITIES OF CHECKER VISION SENSORS
Model 252 adds pass/fail inspection of height, width, and diameter

Cognex® Corporation (NASDAQ - CGNX), the world’s leading supplier of machine vision systems and vision sensors, has expanded its Checker vision sensor product line with the Checker® 252 model. The 252 includes all inspection capabilities of the award-winning Checker vision sensor family, plus additional software sensors that verify height, width, and diameter and deliver reliable pass/fail results on high-speed production lines.

Key to the simplicity of the Checker 252 is its One-Click Setup™. By simply clicking on the center of the part feature to be inspected, an image of a familiar caliper appears and locks on the edges of the part feature, sets the minimum and maximum thresholds, and learns edge polarity…all automatically.

“With its unique screen caliper, the Checker 252 makes pass/fail measurement verification simple and reliable” said Pascal Dorster, Vision Sensors Business Unit Manager. “Manufacturers in many industries, such as automotive and packaging, can now verify dimensions of parts with very low-contrast edges and solve a wide range of measurement verification tasks not possible with photoelectric sensors.”

As with other Checker models, the 252 is available with the Cognex SensorView^TM 350, a compact, industrial, panel-mount display. The Checker 252 will be available in November, 2008. For more information, please visit http://www.cognex.com/checker252.

Cognex Technical Firsts

Cognex has more than 200 patents in machine vision, and the largest team of machine vision experts anywhere in the world. Below are a few of the significant technical advances pioneered by Cognex:

• First industrial optical character recognition system (DataMan) – 1982
• First normalized correlation pattern finder (Search) – 1986
• First single-board OEM vision engine (Cognex 2000) – 1986
• First patent for dedicated vision chip (VC-1) – 1991
• First full-capability machine vision system for VME bus computers (Cognex 4000) – 1991
• First advanced vision system for PC/AT bus personal computers (Cognex 5000) – 1993
• First “third-generation” easy-to-use machine vision system (Checkpoint) – 1994
• First PC plug-in Data Matrix 2D code reading solution (acuReader/2D) – 1996
• First high-accuracy, high-speed, high-yield, object location technology (PatMax ®) – 1997
• First compact, high-speed industrial machine vision camera (CVC-1000) – 1998
• First full-capability machine vision sensor (In-Sight 2000) – 2000
• First industrial machine vision sensor with Ethernet / IP (In-Sight 1000 and In-Sight 3000) – 2001

Machine vision applications

The majority of manufacturers served by Cognex today are in the semiconductor, electronics, automotive, aerospace, pharmaceutical and medical device industries. Typical applications include:

• Verifying presence of electronic components
• Ensuring that pharmaceutical packages have been correctly labeled
• Verifying presence of critical fasteners and bolts in automobiles
• Ensuring that safety seals on bottles are present and intact
• Reading ID codes on aircraft engine parts and tracking their manufacturing history
• Guiding assembly robots in automotive factories and electronics manufacturing equipment

Unusual machine vision applications

Cognex vision sensors are used in smaller numbers in virtually every nook and cranny of modern industry. Here are some of the more unusual applications of Cognex technology:

• Checking the sex of chickens—before they are born!
• Grading the quality of potatoes
• Measuring the growth of bacteria in a Petri dish
• Inspecting beer kegs for leaks
• Inspecting coffins
• Sorting books by looking at their covers (Cognex CAN tell a book by its cover!)
• Checking for sediment in bottles of champagne

Fun facts about Cognex

• Cognex stands for Cognition Experts
• Cognex Founder Dr. Robert J. Shillman carried out research in human visual perception at the Cognitive Information Processing Group at M.I.T., where he received his doctorate degree in 1974
• Since 1981, Cognex has shipped more than 300,000 vision systems, more than any other vision company
• When Cognex’s first vision system, called “DataMan,” read its first character in 1981, the company’s three founders started a tradition of drinking a champagne toast to mark important company milestones. Today, the lobby of the company’s headquarters in Natick, MA includes a three story “Wall of Fame” covered with champagne bottles, each symbolizing a significant company achievement
• Cognex sold its first vision system to IBM, where it was used it to read serial numbers that were etched by laser on the surfaces of semiconductor wafers.
• Virtually every semiconductor chip manufactured in the world today is made with the aid of machine vision, and most of them are made with the help of Cognex’s vision systems
• CEO Robert J. Shillman, who has made his fortune from the success of Cognex, has not taken a salary since 2001, and since 2004 has asked the company to donate his annual bonus to charity
• Cognex founders Shillman, Silver and Matz received the 2005 SEMI award from Semiconductor Manufacturers International (SEMI), for their significant technical contributions to semiconductor manufacturing, and in 2004 were featured in Fortune magazine as “Heroes of Manufacturing”

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets machine vision sensors and systems, or devices that can “see.” Cognex vision sensors are used in factories around the world to automate the manufacture of a wide range of items and to assure their quality. Cognex is the world’s leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 300,000 machine vision systems, representing over $1.9 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company’s founding in 1981. In addition to its corporate headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices and distributors located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Vision sensors are used to automate simple visual inspections where common photo-electrics cannot. Industrial application of vision sensors include: detection of missing parts, gauging incorrect size, orientation of parts and alignment and basic flaw detection.

Important specifications to consider when searching for vision sensors include number of images stored and maximum inspection rate.  The number of images stored represents captured images that can be stored into on-board memory or non-volatile storage.  The maximum inspection rate is the maximum number of parts or process steps that can be inspected or evaluated per unit time.  This is usually given in units of inspections per second.  Other important parameters include horizontal resolution, maximum frame rate, shutter speed, sensitivity, and signal to noise ratio.

About Checker:

The overriding principle of Checker is simplicity.  Because of Checker’s speed, processing at 500 frames per second, Checker is able to detect a part without a photoelectric sensor, and can precisely determine when the part was detected.  This allows Checker to have deterministic output timing, which makes Checker very simple to integrate on a production line.

Checker doesn’t have ‘‘vision tools’‘, Checker has sensors designed to detect the presence of parts and part features.  Checker’s Part Finding and Inspection sensors were designed to look and feel like photoelectric sensors so the user would be immediately comfortable using them.