Cognex Expands 3D Sensor Portfolio

Three new models, ease-of-use software and vision tool advances for DS1000 series 3D laser displacement sensors

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the world's leader in machine vision, today announced an expanded portfolio of 3D laser displacement sensors, an industrial vision controller, and powerful new 3D vision tools. The DS1050, DS1101, and DS1300 sensors address an unprecedented variety of 3D applications demanding high resolution and expanded measurement range.

The DS1000 series now comes bundled with the new Cognex VC5 vision controller, delivering a complete solution to meet the most challenging 3D requirements. The VC5 can control up to four 3D sensors, as well as factory-floor communications. It comes pre-installed with Cognex Designer™, a new easy-to-configure software framework that simplifies the development of 3D applications and creation of a professional-looking graphical user interface.

The DS1000 Series now also offers an expanded selection of advanced vision tools. In addition to proven 2D vision tools PatMax®, IDMax®, and OCRMax™, the DS1000 Series now offers 3D tools such as 3D height, plane fitting, plane-to-plane angle, volume, and cross section. This combination gives the DS1000 series the power to successfully perform virtually all 3D inspections – delivering sub-micron measurement and addressing contrast-independent OCR and presence/absence applications.

“Our expanded 3D sensor portfolio allows our customers to benefit from world-class Cognex 3D and 2D vision tools for higher resolution and larger field-of-view,” says Joerg Kuechen, Vice President and Business Unit Manager, Vision Products. “The Cognex Designer software turns complex machine-vision requirements into easily maintainable solutions and makes creating and deploying complete solutions for the most challenging 3D applications faster than ever without the assistance of a skilled programmer.”

The DS1000 series of 3D displacement sensors uses laser triangulation to extract 3D information from the parts it scans. Displacement sensors allow precision inspection of parts regardless of contrast or lighting conditions. The DS1000 series is factory-calibrated for fast, consistent mounting and eliminates the need to go through a calibration procedure or pixel conversion process to acquire precision measurements in real-world units.

DS1000 3D laser displacement sensors are available now. For more information, visit http://www.cognex.com.

About Cognex
Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets a range of products that incorporate sophisticated machine vision technology that gives them the ability to "see." Cognex products include barcode readers, machine vision sensors and machine vision systems that are used in factories, warehouses and distribution centers around the world to guide, gauge, inspect, identify and assure the quality of items during the manufacturing and distribution process. Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than one million vision-based products, representing over $4 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company's founding in 1981. Headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, USA, Cognex has regional offices and distributors located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, Asia and Latin America. For details visit Cognex online at http://www.cognex.com.