(AIA: Ann Arbor, MI) -- Machine vision sales grew 16 percent in North America during the second quarter of 2011 compared to the same quarter one year earlier, according to the Quarterly Machine Vision Sales Tracking Report of the Automated Imaging Association (AIA), the world's largest global machine vision trade group.

The AIA report recorded robust sales across almost all major machine vision supplier markets, including cameras, lighting, optics, software, application-specific machine vision systems, and smart cameras.

The new report also found that the machine vision industry continues to expect sales to stay at current levels or to increase during the next six months. Overall, only 9 percent of reporting companies expect sales to decrease.

"It is encouraging that for the sixth quarter in a row, the machine vision market in North America has recorded solid year-over-year growth," says Jeff Burnstein, president of AIA.

 …