Pack Expo: Machine vision frame grabbers, cameras, free seminars

Matrox Imaging added frame grabbers, Dalsa Corp. added machine vision cameras, and Cognex invites manufacturing professionals to its free machine vision seminars.

By Control Engineering Staff November 10, 2008

New additions to Matrox Imaging’s frame grabber family and new cameras from Dalsa Corp. were just added to the vision products arena. In other news, Cognex invites manufacturing professionals to its free machine vision seminars across the country. Cognex and Dalsa are among exhibitors at Pack Expo 2008 .

Matrox Imaging ntroduced new frame grabbers for high-performance Camera Link cameras, the Matrox Solios eV-CL and Matrox Solios eM-CL.

Matrox Imaging announces frame grabber for high-performance Camera Link cameras with Matrox Solios eV-CL and Matrox Solios eM-CL, the newest members of the Matrox Solios frame grabber family.The new products are cost-effective Camera Link frame grabbers for PCI Express desktop and PCI/104-Express embedded form factors, respectively. Both provide connectivity to high-performance, multi-megapixel area and line scan Camera Link cameras. They are available for dual independent base or single medium/full configurations with support for up to 10-taps at 85 MHz. Both formats simplify cabling with support for Power over Camera Link (PoCL) using SafePower implementation. A set of general-purpose inputs and outputs (GPIOs) synchronize image acquisition with external events and communicate with process automation devices. Onboard image reconstruction, look-up tables (LUTs), and Bayer conversion offload pre-processing tasks. The host processor is thus able to concentrate on image analytics.Software support for 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows XP/Vista and Linux consists of the hardware-independent Matrox Imaging Library (MIL)/ActiveMIL or MIL-Lite/ActiveMIL-Lite development toolkits for creating custom applications. Matrox Solios eM-CL is available on its own or as an optional module for use within the Matrox 4Sight X embedded system.

Newly expanded line of Dalsa Xcelera frame grabbers

Dalsa Corp. released two new cameras at last week’s Vision 2008 event in Stuttgart, Germany. The Spyder3 Color camera, based on the Spyder3 monochrome models using dual line sensor technology, provides high color fidelity and affordable solutions for the growing color imaging market.Two new models of the Genie GigE Vision-compliant camera family include Genie C1600 and Genie M1600 cameras with 2-megapixel high-resolution sensors for industrial imaging applications in the semiconductor, robotics, and traffic control industries.The newly expanded line of Xcelera frame grabbers addresses different camera interfaces, including analog, LVDS and Camera Link (CL), all based on the PCI Express (PCIe) platform.The latest Sapera Essential software includes a new color tool, a suite of color image processing classes for machine vision applications. Functionality includes color conversions, color image processing, color calibration, and color classification.Dalsa presented interactive demonstrations to showcase areas line-scan and area-scan cameras, image acquisition frame grabbers and processors, and vision software. A focus was to show how color could be incorporated into industrial inspection applications with Sherlock software, the VA-61 Vision Appliance, and Genie cameras.

Cognex

Cognex has announced a series of free machine vision seminars for manufacturing professionals. The half-day events will show how easy it is to set up and deploy vision systems for automated inspection tasks in the automotive, pharmaceutical, food, beverage, consumer packaged goods, medical, and electronics industries.Each seminar combines a machine vision basics tutorial with live vision system demonstrations of the simple, four-step process for setting up a machine vision application with new EasyBuilder software for the company’s line of In-Sight vision systems. The tutorial covers how vision systems work in manufacturing applications to accurately inspect, guide and identify products to reduce production costs and achieve a high level of product quality.

Cognex also offers free traceability seminars teach about part traceability solutions for factory automation.

Participants will learn how machine vision has been transformed into a more affordable and accessible solution. Attendees are encouraged to bring a product sample and discuss their application with a Cognex engineer.Seminars run through December and are held in major cities throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Online registration is available.A separate Cognex also offers a series of traceability seminars . Also read:

Smart Cameras Resolve Control Issues

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Inspection Systems Benefit from High-tech Components

Vision for Process Control

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