Product Recall Prevention with Vision Solutions from Cognex

Cognex Corporation: From food and beverage to cosmetic and pharmaceutical products – while industry standards tighten and consumers are getting more sensitive, the number of product recalls and their associated costs are increasing substantially. Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the world's leader in machine vision, offers vision solutions and ID systems for production, packaging and logistics which help to prevent expensive product recalls or at least minimize their costs. Cognex’ flagship products are the In-Sight series of vision systems for ensuring high quality production and the DataMan series of barcode readers for efficient product tracking throughout the supply chain.

“The latest large product recalls in the food industry remind us how important quality is in the production and packaging process and how vital it is to have established an effective system for product tracking,” says Olivier Feraille, Senior Sales Manager Strategic Vertical Markets Europe at Cognex. “Product recalls are not only a threat to a company’s profitability because of the instant loss of sales or the high costs of logistics to retrieve and replace impaired products. They may even harm the company in the long run when losing the customers’ confidence and in consequence hard-fought market shares.”

Cognex In-Sight vision systems combine a library of advanced vision tools with high-speed image acquisition and processing and are employed in all industries for inspecting, identifying and guiding parts. Available in a wide choice of models, In-Sight systems can be found e.g. at a chocolate manufacturer to inspect synthetic molds which might be subject to wear and tear, or at packaging plants for “zero defects” in product seals while using Cognex’ PatMax pattern recognition technology.

DataMan is a series of high performance handheld and fix-mount readers from Cognex designed for 1-D barcode and 2-D code reading. Manufacturers are implementing DataMan readers to establish robust one up/one back databases for traceability. As each product can be tracked until it reaches the end customers, food and beverage as well as pharmaceutical companies not only can ensure quality according to high industry standards and avoid mislabeled products with allergens, but also allow for efficient recalls.

For more information on vision systems and ID readers from Cognex for the food, beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry, please visit www.cognex.com.

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation designs and manufactures sophisticated machine vision technology that gives products 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 1 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 the Americas, Europe, and Asia. For details, visit Cognex online at www.cognex.com.

Cognex, In-Sight and EasyBuilder are registered U.S. trademarks and In-Sight Explorer is a trademark of Cognex Corporation.