Farmington Hills, MI/Westlake, OH (August 31, 2000) Integral Vision (NASDAQ: INVI) proudly appoints Ohio-based Lakewood Automation, a leading sensor and control specialist, as the first authorized distributor for the company’s Industrial Vision Controller (IVC)™ . Lakewood Automation’s experience in the vision industry and unparalleled dedication to their customers, through engineering services, application assistance, seminars and training, makes them an ideal choice for partnership with Integral Vision.

No Programming Required
IVC is the latest offering in machine vision systems from Integral Vision, a world leader in PC-based quality control and inspection technology. IVC is being marketed as an industrial PC suitable for manufacturing environments, complete with the simplest drag and drop graphical user interface (GUI). Positioned between "smart sensors" and higher-end vision systems, IVC will be sold through automation distributors serving machine builders and manufacturers. Target markets for IVC include the automotive, bio-medical/technology, consumer products and electronics industries.

IVC was designed with the production employee in mind. At the annual AIA business conference held in February 2000, it was noted that the future of machine vision would rely on user-friendly systems, mainly for low-skilled workers.(1) The IVC product combines elements of Integral Vision’s popular Common Vision Blox™ development software, with the familiar iconic programming interface of Microsoft Windows. Vision tools, program options and I/O control are added to a project folder to create product inspection sequences. The "Task Sequencer" automatically generates pass/fail and numerical results that enable users to track and regulate their production lines. With no knowledge of Visual Basic or C++ required, IVC can be used by virtually anyone for parts measurement, print validation, assembly verification and electronics inspection.

Lakewood Automation, already a distributor of quality control and test equipment including industrial computers, software, sensors and lighting, was in the market for an easy-to-use PC-based machine vision system. According to Alan Watson, technical services manager for Lakewood Automation, IVC was the perfect addition to the growing collection of vision components they offer. "In our experience we have found that a system like IVC will save our customers more money during installation than other PC-based solutions. This is attributed to IVC’s drag and drop interface, which in turn means reduced engineering time because the user does not need to write custom code. We look forward to working with Integral Vision and solving many applications with the IVC," said Mr. Watson.

Configuration & Pricing
IVC is a complete hardware and software package. Depending upon customer need, a variety of configurations are available, including desktop and industrial computers. IVC supports up to four monochrome cameras, and pricing starts as low as $8,500 (US).

An Optimistic Industry
The 1999 Machine Vision Market Study(2) states that the total North American machine-vision merchant and value-added markets totaled $1.714 billion in 1999, an increase of 8.5% over the total of $1.58 billion in 1998. Compared to the 1998 results, the leading end-user industries were semiconductor, electronics, food processing, and transportation. For the merchant machine-vision industry, revenues increased 13%, units shipped increased 22.9%, and average unit price decreased 7.6%.

Company Background
Lakewood Automation has been servicing Northern Ohio’s industries for more than 50 years. The company’s engineered sales force and technical specialists are uniquely qualified to solve difficult sensing and control challenges. Together they provide educated and experienced situation analysis as a backbone for quality, innovative solutions. These services are duly enhanced by Lakewood Automation’s state-of-the-art training facilities, machine vision and sensing labs, and convenient support services, to provide customers with a total solution to their automation technology needs.

Integral Vision boasts over 25 years experience in the quality control arena. Always at the forefront of inspection technology, Integral Vision offers 1-D, 2-D and 3-D vision solutions in a variety of industries, including optical disc, print, display, and electronics. Our advanced optical group is unsurpassed in their innovative and successful approaches to imaging tough optical products like CDs, glass and bare metal. We offer a lifetime of technical service and support for our application-specific products.

Integral Vision is a publicly-owned international company with shares traded over the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol INVI. Our worldwide support base includes branches in Singapore, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States.

(1) Source: Vision Systems Design magazine, April 2000, Volume 5, Issue 4. Author: George Kotelly

(2) Compiled by the Automated Imaging Association.

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