Cognex Corporation

Cognex Corporation is an American manufacturer of machine vision systems, software and sensors used in automated manufacturing to inspect and identify parts, detect defects, verify product assembly, and guide assembly robots. Cognex is headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, USA and has offices in more than 20 countries.

Cognex Corporation
TypePublic
Nasdaq: CGNX
S&P 400 Component
IndustryIndustrial automation (hardware and software)
Founded1981
Headquarters
Natick, Massachusetts
,
United States
Key people
Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Founder, Chairman and Chief Culture Officer; Robert Willett, President and CEO; Sheila DiPalma, Executive VP, Employee Services; Paul Todgham, Senior VP, Chief Financial Officer
ProductsVision Systems, Vision Sensors, Vision Software, ID Readers
Revenue$876 million USD (2020)
Number of employees
2000
Websitewww.cognex.com

Cognex began exploring commercial applications of machine vision in the early 1980s.[1] In the 1990s, Cognex's business grew due to a demand for machine vision tools to help automate semiconductor and electronics manufacturing. While semiconductor manufacturing remains an important market for Cognex, it has expanded to general manufacturing applications.[2]

The company's product portfolio includes In-Sight, VisionPro software, and DataMan.[3]

History

Cognex Corporation was founded in 1981 by Robert J. Shillman, a lecturer in human visual perception at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and two MIT graduate students, Bill Silver and Marilyn Matz.[4] Cognex stands for "Cognition Experts."[5]

The company's first vision system, DataMan, was introduced in 1982. DataMan was an optical character recognition (OCR) system designed to read, verify, and assure the quality of letters, numbers, and symbols printed on products and components. The company's first customer was a typewriter manufacturer that purchased DataMan to read letters on typewriter keys and ensure that they were located in the correct position.

In 1989, Cognex went public on the NASDAQ exchange for $1.38 per share—within a year, the stock price had tripled.[6]

In 1995, Cognex purchased Acumen, a U.S. based developer of wafer identification systems.

In 2004, the company won an intellectual property victory when a federal judge ruled in Cognex's favor in a patent lawsuit brought against the estate of the inventor Jerome H. Lemelson, who had filed dozens of submarine patents, some of which purported to cover machine vision processes. The machine vision-related patents were held invalid.[7][8][9][10] The ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.[11]

Cognex sold off its in-vehicle product in 2007, citing concerns about profitability and intellectual property issues.

In 2015 Cognex sold off its Surface Vision Division and the associated range of products SmartView (web inspection), Vision Gear (slit inspection), Smart Advisor (process surveillance, web monitoring) and VisionPro Surface to Ametek Inc. for approximately 160M US$. The sold division represented about 12% of Cognex in terms of revenue and number of employees.[12]

In April 2017 Cognex acquired ViDi Systems, a Swiss-based provider of deep learning software for industrial machine vision applications.[13] In October 2019 Cognex acquired Sualab, a Korean-based developer of vision software using deep learning for industrial applications.[14]

During summer 2020 Cognex laid off 8% of its headcount (190 employees).[15] In December 2020 Cognex announced payment of $2 dividend per share.[16] In the press release explaining this special dividend[17] the chairman, Robert J. Shillman, referred to one of the company's mottos, to explain the highest dividend paid out in the company's history. This motto being: “When Cognex wins, we all win”.[17]

On February 11, 2021, Cognex announced the resignation of Robert Shillman from the company's board of directors and as an executive officer of Cognex, effective May 5, 2021.[18]

Products

Some of the products produced by Cognex are:

  • In-Sight - a vision system that combines a camera, software and processor into one compact unit.[3] In April 2020, Cognex introduced the In-Sight D900 embedded vision system, which features deep learning software inside an In-Sight industrial-grade smart camera. The system is designed to solve complex in-line inspection applications including optical character recognition (OCR), assembly verification, and defect detection.[19]
  • VisionPro vision software.[3]
  • DataMan - a family of fixed mount and handheld ID readers used to identify and track items by reading 1D and 2D Data Matrix codes.[3]
  • 3D Sensors[20]

References
  1. "Tax cut plan will give big growth boost to automation companies". www.digitaljournal.com. 2017-10-06. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  2. "Company History | Cognex". www.cognex.com. Retrieved 2020-08-12.
  3. "CGNX Profile | Cognex Corporation Stock - Yahoo Finance". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  4. "CGNX - Cognex Corp Company Profile - CNNMoney.com". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  5. "Company History". Cognex Corporation. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  6. "Cognex - Company History". Cognex. Archived from the original on 6 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
  7. "USATODAY.com - Some claim inventor Lemelson a fraud". usatoday30.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  8. United States District Court District of Nevada CV-S-01-701-PMP, January 23, 2004
  9. "U.S. Judge Invalidates Billion-Dollar Scan Patents (Update1) - Bloomberg". Bloomberg News. 2012-10-25. Archived from the original on 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2023-05-25.
  10. Riordan, Teresa (2004-02-02). "Patents; As shown by recent cases argued in the courts, properly crediting an inventor can be murky business". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  11. United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 04-1451, Symbol Technologies, Inc. et al. v. Lemelson Medical, Education & Research Foundation, LP Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, September 9, 2005
  12. "Cognex agrees to sell Surface Inspection Systems Division to AMETEK, Inc". June 2015.
  13. "Cognex adds deep learning expertise with ViDi Systems acquisition | Imaging and Machine Vision Europe". www.imveurope.com. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  14. "Cognex announces Sualab acquisition=1=30 October 2019".
  15. CFA, Evan Niu (2020-05-29). "Why Cognex Stock Plunged Today". The Motley Fool. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  16. "Cognex Declares Very Special Cash Dividend of $2 Per Share". www.businesswire.com. 2020-12-03. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  17. "Cognex Declares Very Special Cash Dividend of $2 Per Share". investor.cognex.com. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  18. "Cognex Chairman and Founder, Dr. Robert J. Shillman, to Resign". BusinessWire. 2021-02-11.
  19. "Improving Vision with Deep Learning".
  20. "Industrial Vision Sensors: From Humble Beginnings To Amazing Capabilities". Design World. 2018-02-08. Retrieved 2022-04-25.

42.30213°N 71.35534°W / 42.30213; -71.35534

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