NEWS
nLight acquires Plasmo for weld inspection tech Jake Bell, general manager for industrial
Fibre laser provider, nLight, has bought Plasmo Industrietechnik to add Plasmo’s machine vision and analysis products to nLight’s manufacturing solutions. Plasmo is an Austrian-based provider of automated quality assurance and diagnostic solutions, primarily for the welding and additive manufacturing markets. Te solutions will complement nLight’s industrial laser portfolio.
lasers at nLight, commented: ‘Combining lasers with Plasmo’s real-time process monitoring solutions provides customers with a significant advantage as they develop, qualify and produce increasingly complex laser-printed or welded parts, particularly for high volume electric vehicle production.’ Laser welding is expected to play a role
in battery production, as well as other manufacturing steps in electric vehicle production plants. Plasmo includes in-line triangulation cameras for inspecting weld seams at a processing speed of 30kHz, as well as sensors incorporated directly into welding optics for seam inspection. nLight will expand its European footprint with the addition of Plasmo’s Germany and Austrian sites.
UKIVA conference eagerly anticipated
By Allan Anderson, UKIVA vice chairman
The UKIVA AGM, which took place recently in Milton Keynes, provided a welcome opportunity for members to get together in person for the first time in two years. The meeting covered a wide range of topics, including an update on preparations for the Machine Vision Conference and Exhibition (MVC 2022), scheduled to take place on 28 April at the Marshall Arena, Milton Keynes. Seven companies: Gardasoft Vision, GeT
Cameras, LMI Technologies, Smart Vision Lights, Teledyne Dalsa, TPL Vision and Zebra Technologies were welcomed as new UKIVA members, all seven of which are participating in MVC 2022. The updated UKIVA governance document
and committee charter, introduced during 2021, were discussed prior to the election of the UKIVA committee for 2022. A representative from Smart Vision Lights was voted onto the committee. Delegates from Acrovision, Alrad Imaging, Bytronic Vision Automation, ClearView Imaging, Edmund Optics, IDS Imaging Development Systems, Jenton Dimaco, Mettler Toledo, Multipix Imaging, Scorpion Vision, Sick (UK) and Stemmer Imaging, were all re-elected. Neil Sandhu has entered his second year of office as UKIVA chairman, and will be succeeded in January 2023 by current vice chairman, Allan Anderson. A new vice chairman will be elected in January 2023. A very positive report was presented on
the preparations for MVC 2022. A strong conference programme is supported by a keynote presentation, entitled: ‘From
6 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE APRIL/MAY 2022
Denis Bulgin (centre), who retires after 23 years working for UKIVA, and former UKIVA chairmen (from left) Ian Alderton, Paul Wilson, Mark Williamson and Allan Anderson
trash to cash’ presented by Seb Millar, machine learning engineering manager at Recycleye. Recycleye specialises in the application of advanced machine learning, computer vision and robotics to improve waste recycling efficiencies at materials recycling or recovery facilities. The exhibition will feature a number of first-time exhibitors, providing added interest. The combination of these factors has attracted an extremely encouraging number of visitor pre-registrations. Now entering its sixth year, MVC
(
www.machinevisionconference.co.uk) is an integral part of UKIVA’s mission to promote the use of machine vision and image processing throughout UK industry. During the height of the pandemic, the online programmes of presentations in 2020 and 2021 through the MVC technology hub proved very popular, with a significant proportion of visitors in 2021 in particular
being completely new registrations. The return of the live event in 2022 is eagerly anticipated. The key objectives set out in the UKIVA mid-term strategy were then reviewed, including a stimulating discussion on ways to enhance pathways into working within the vision industry, as well as other training initiatives that could benefit the industry as a whole. Members were reminded of the opportunities in education, training and support offered by PPMA Best to encourage young people to enter and develop a career in engineering in the processing, packaging, robotics, automation and industrial vision supply industries. PPMA Best is a completely independent charitable trust, funded by the Processing and Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA). The meeting closed with a presentation to Denis Bulgin, who retires after 23 years of helping UKIVA with its publicity.
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www.imveurope.com
UKIVA
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