Vision system reccomendations

[JoeM3]

Greetings,
I have a camera in the early stages of failure. It senses whether a piece of silver colored film is aligned. For IP reasons I would not go into this further.
I don't like that camera. It is a inexpensive one and difficult to use. I would like to upgrade. I would like the camera to have Ethernet/IP. In terms of setup and configuration I would like a intuitive interface. Ultimately I would like to hand alignment chores off to operations, after I commission and initially test it. Finally I would like it to be from a company that has technical support available at least during business hours.
What would you advise?

 

[Robb B]

Opticom https://opticomtech.com/ I've used them, pretty nice cameras.

 

[L33er]

Cognex

 

[I_Automation]

Cognex

And get calls, emails and show-up-uninvited by every Cognex sales person in North America. Even had one wanted to meet and I said I was going to be at a customer's shop all day and accidentally named the shop and he showed up there asking for me. That didn't sit well with the shop owner or me.



Same if you log in their website and check a spec sheet or download a catalog page.


I use Keyence and have respect for the 2 salesmen I deal with (1 controls, 1 vision) as they are helpful and don't show up unscheduled.


Plus I have a customer that has already installed about 30 Keyence cameras and specs them for new machines and upgrades.

 

[dmroeder]

And get calls, emails and show-up-uninvited by every Cognex sales person in North America. Even had one wanted to meet and I said I was going to be at a customer's shop all day and accidentally named the shop and he showed up there asking for me. That didn't sit well with the shop owner or me.



Same if you log in their website and check a spec sheet or download a catalog page.


I use Keyence and have respect for the 2 salesmen I deal with (1 controls, 1 vision) as they are helpful and don't show up unscheduled.


Plus I have a customer that has already installed about 30 Keyence cameras and specs them for new machines and upgrades.

Weird, I have the exact opposite experience between the company reps.

 

[PreLC]

Weird, I have the exact opposite experience between the company reps.

Same. Usually Keyence is the one that maintains a reverse engineered version of your plant and the current/upcoming projects and is the first to do demos for pandering purposes.

 

[IO_Rack]

Weird, I have the exact opposite experience between the company reps.

Ditto. I guess it depends on what neck of the woods you work in.

We use both Keyence and Cognex. You should talk with both companies and make your decision. I think the Keyence stand alone user interface is better than Cognex but if you are using a PLC and HMI, then it won't matter.

 

[I_Automation]

...I think the Keyence stand alone user interface is better than Cognex but if you are using a PLC and HMI, then it won't matter.

The newest Keyence PLC has vision abilities included in them, camera feed inputs and considerable storage for pictures if you want to archive the past xxx days.


Plus the way the Cognex rep's are I'm not even going to look at their website. If a customer spec's Cognex and won't accept anything else I'll get a burner email and phone just for them that I can stop using after the project and not check messages or answer the phone during.

 

[IO_Rack]

The newest Keyence PLC has vision abilities included in them, camera feed inputs and considerable storage for pictures if you want to archive the past xxx days.

This is a different function than vision inspection but a very cool feature nonetheless. It also replays the ladder execution in sync with the video! We're
hoping to get one to play around with.

 

[joseph_e2]

I had a chat with one of the Keyence reps who were calling me repeatedly every time I downloaded a manual and they must have made a note or something because I don't get nagged any more. They're still responsive when I have a question; they just don't bug me and definitely don't just show up. That's really bad form.

 

[dploof23]

Weird, I have the exact opposite experience between the company reps.

100 percent what I was going to say.

 

[BachPhi]

Just got another annoying email from Keyence.

 

[mikeexplorer]

I had a chat with one of the Keyence reps who were calling me repeatedly every time I downloaded a manual and they must have made a note or something because I don't get nagged any more. They're still responsive when I have a question; they just don't bug me and definitely don't just show up. That's really bad form.

I have had the same experience. Every time I downloaded a manual to look at something, same thing, emails, phone calls etc..


Finally I told the rep, don't call me, I will call you if I have questions.

 

[joseph_e2]

The cool thing is that our rep has changed multiple times since then but they all "got the message" without having to repeat it. They must have a notes in their customer database.

 

[I_Automation]

The cool thing is that our rep has changed multiple times since then but they all "got the message" without having to repeat it. They must have a notes in their customer database.

Notes?


Every sales department out there has a file on you that is close to what Google, Facebook and Microsoft has compiled on you