UK Industrial Vision Association marks a decade since it was first formed by welcoming its first non-UK members
The UK Industrial Vision Association is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
The inaugural meeting was held in London on Tuesday 15 September 1992.
When Ukiva was formed, membership was restricted to suppliers having a permanent address in the UK. Evolving membership criteria, however has culminated in the lifting of all location restrictions on membership to create a new World membership category.
The Association's first World members, are Neuricam of Italy, Integrated Vision Products of Sweden, and Ircon whose European base is in the Netherlands.
They are all suppliers of components used in the construction of vision systems by vision experts who do not need local support. The decision to widen membership was largely prompted by the fact that over half the visits to the association's website come from outside the UK.
The original Ukiva committee was led by David Humphries, managing director of Electronic Automation of Hull, one of the country's longest established vision suppliers, and Ukiva was formed with the prime objective of promoting the use of vision by UK manufacturing industry.
David Humphries, now enjoying a well-earned retirement, comments: "It is ten years since we founded Ukiva but it seems much longer, because I have been involved with machine vision for nearly 20 years.
Our first industrial systems used a magnificent 30 x 32 pixels for muffin inspection.
They offered limited software menus but were very effective in rejecting rogue oversize muffins that would otherwise have jammed up the packaging machines." There have been huge technological developments since those early industrial systems were developed. Perhaps the most significant of these is that machine vision has emerged as a technology in its own right, which no longer needs to 'borrow' components developed for other applications.
Companies now design and manufacture specialised cameras, camera interfacing technology, and illumination systems and lenses especially for machine vision applications.
Ukiva offers a wide range of services, including a 'Vision Helpline', a regular programme of seminars on vision-related topics and a web site which carries a wealth of useful information, including a number of links to national and international sites with a strong interest in vision.
The web site attracts over 2000 visitors per month, with most member pages attracting around 40 visits per month.
A special 10th anniversary issue of the Association's popular full colour newsletter has also been published.
