The Machinery and Equipment Manufacturers Association (VDMA) expects a nominal decline in sales of 10% for the image processing industry in Germany this year, according to a press release from the VDMA’s Machine Vision department this week, published during the VISION show and trade fair. The percentage differs from the previous forecast made by VDMA in April, which showed a decline of 3%. As of yet, no change in trend is expected for 2025.

According to chairman of the VDMA Machine Vision Division, Mark Williamson, the decrease is due to the machine vision industry’s strong ties to the manufacturing industry, which totals 71% of market shares in systems and 62% in components. "According to official statistics,” Williamson said, “the order backlog of our largest customer industry in Germany in July was 4.3% lower than in the same month last year... This will have a short-term dampening effect on demand for machine vision products.”

However, Williamson said that it is his belief that the machine vision market will move off of a downturn; he said that he expects a 9% compound annual growth rate to continue in the medium term year on year. This is due in part to a broad automation trend that applies to both the manufacturing industry and to sectors that do not work in traditional manufacturing.

Demand for machine vision systems outside of the manufacturing industry rose by 5% to a market share of 29% in 2023 and with a sales share of 38%, with demand for machine vision components outside the manufacturing industry is even greater than for systems. Applications for these areas include medical devices, intelligent traffic systems, logistics, and mail sorting. Inspection applications, such as quality control, printing, and surface inspection systems, are showing so far as the strongest sales segment for image processing systems with a share of 34%

VDMA also recognizes the use of AI as an important sales driver, according to its survey "Machine Vision in Europe." The share of sales of products in which AI is used as a key solution component rose to 19% in 2023 with more than two-thirds of respondents now stating that AI is a driving force for the current and future image processing business.