BitFlow Sees Unparalleled Demand for Higher Speed Vision Systems

At a time when machine vision equipment manufacturers are limiting customer choice by narrowing product lines and curtailing investments in research and development, BitFlow has continued to follow a multi-year roadmap in support of strategic initiatives that have led to the company now offering the industry's largest portfolio of CoaXPress™ and CameraLink frame grabbers. BitFlow's broad line ensures vision engineers get the board best suited to their application — and not the one most convenient for the manufacturer to sell.

BitFlow today offers nine unique CoaXPress (CXP) frame grabbers (11 total with variations) including its newest CoaXPress over Fiber (CXPoF) board promising speeds up to 12 GB/second with 25 GB/second on the horizon, along with a family of seven CameraLink frame grabbers (10 with variations) in four data transfer speeds — Base, Medium, Full and 80-bit (Deca mode). BitFlow's technical engineering staff can steer customers to the appropriate frame grabber for their requirements that will reduce system costs, accelerate throughput, improve image quality, and minimize time to market.

"BitFlow recognized a decade ago that latency would be a barrier to leveraging the full potential of powerful megapixel cameras," said Donal Waide, Director of Sales for BitFlow, Inc. "So while our competitors essentially stood still, BitFlow developed frame grabbers that matched the new camera's data transfer requirements, both in terms of their extremely high resolution and faster frame rate speeds. Today, BitFlow is targeting the tectonic shift brought on by digital transformation where machine vision is becoming part of the enterprise's network rather than operating in its silo."

Digital transformation connects machine vision systems to IoT technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and robotics so companies can gain more visibility from the top to the bottom of their manufacturing activities. For instance, digital images captured by cameras can be combined with data from integrated sensors stationed on a conveyor belt measuring ambient temperature, machine health, and lighting conditions in the drive to gain a fuller picture of the working environment. This data can be analyzed for improved decision-making and uploaded to AI servers to sharpen machine learning models.

According to Waide, this level of innovation and connectivity will require faster, more powerful frame grabbers to not disrupt manufacturing processes. CoaXPress frame grabbers may be the path of least resistance. The CoaXPress interface is much faster and more stable than GigE Vision, USB3, or CameraLink.

"CXP has opened a new realm of opportunities for vision systems, especially the new fiber optic design," explained Waide. "Fiber has advantages over coaxial cable in situations requiring exceptionally long cabling or when electrical isolation is required between the camera and the PC as is the case in noisy industrial sites. Also, CXPoF has cost benefits over traditional coax because of its ability to use Ethernet networking components, especially as this applies to cable costs."