Zero in on core processes, deliver one-stop empowerment for PV & energy storage intelligent manufacturing upgrades! Visi
2026-06-04
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SNEC 2026
Held from June 3 to 5, SNEC 2026 Shanghai International Photovoltaic Exhibition grandly opens at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). Hikrobot makes a prominent appearance with intelligent solutions covering the full photovoltaic production process chain.
Spanning silicon wafer slicing, solar cell fabrication, module encapsulation to high-precision inspection, Hikrobot underpins product quality with fully self-developed core technologies, exploring new pathways for PV-storage integration and smart manufacturing upgrading alongside numerous on-site industry visitors.
Micron-level sensing for slicing processes enables rigorous silicon wafer quality control.
01 Wafer Thickness Inspection
This solution adopts six 3D profile sensors to measure wafer thickness. Deployed in opposite paired layout, the system simultaneously acquires three groups of measurement data and is applicable to silicon wafer sorting stations. Equipped with built-in algorithms against ambient light interference, specular reflection interference and vibration suppression, the cameras deliver greatly improved measurement accuracy and operational stability.
3D Vision Empowers Module Production for High-efficiency Flexible Manufacturing
01 PV Junction Box 3D Visualization
Driven by high-speed oscillation of the galvanometer inside the 3D camera, the solution rapidly sweeps laser lines across target surfaces to capture complete 3D topography of junction boxes in a single scan. Even for messy piled black wiring harnesses on junction boxes, the camera generates refined and intact 3D point clouds to realize rapid and precise identification, facilitating high-efficiency flexible production in PV module assembly procedures.
AI Empowers Solar Cell Production to Maximize Inspection Performance
01 Microcrack Inspection
The solution adopts 4K monochrome line scan cameras paired with large-format short-wave infrared lenses and transmission-type near-infrared laser light sources to detect and classify defects including crystal detachment, edge chipping, fragment breakage, microcracks, overlapping cells and surface contamination above 0.5 mm in dimension.
In addition, the pioneering adoption of the SVA intelligent acquisition card drastically cuts hardware resource occupancy of industrial PCs, lowering equipment costs while securing consistent inspection throughput.
02 Final Surface Inspection & Classification (AOI)
This solution performs color grading sorting on both front and back sides of finished solar cells, alongside defect inspection for surface damage, stain spots, poor screen printing and abnormal grid line dimension. It enables sharp imaging of tiny defects as small as 50μm.
Compatible with multiple cell printing formats including PERC, TOPCon MBB, SMBB, 0BB, shingled cell and BC cell technologies, the system satisfies diversified inspection requirements from customers.
Full in-house development of high-efficiency inspection technology builds a multi-dimensional quality assurance system.
Beyond the above-mentioned production processes, Hikrobot also showcases a full lineup of high-performance inspection solutions, including cell surface debris inspection, CIS macro-focus line scan cameras, SC5000X label defect inspection and dynamic testing for smart sensors.
Powered by core technologies such as six-camera opposed ranging, 4K line-scan near-infrared imaging, high-precision 3D vision and 2.5D dome illumination imaging, the system accurately identifies various flaws: silicon wafer scratches and thickness deviations, solar cell microcracks and edge chipping, module packaging defects as well as debris and scratches on battery cell surfaces. Its maximum inspection precision reaches the micron level, forming a robust quality barrier throughout the full lifecycle of PV and energy storage products.
On-site demonstrations also feature solutions spanning the entire PV industrial chain: SC6500 wafer identification, post-printing PL inspection, post-coating appearance inspection, module label laminating & code reading, and industrial cleaning, driving dual upgrades in production capacity and product quality across the photovoltaic sector.
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Featured Honor | Turck TIV AI Smart Camera Wins Readers' Choice Annual Product Award
2026-05-28
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TIV AI Camera Claims Top Honor in Vision Processing Category
The reader selection results of Computer & Automation have been officially released. Turck TIV intelligent vision AI camera has won the 2026 Annual Product Award in the vision category.
The magazine selects around 600 new industrial products every year, from which its editorial team picks 96 high-quality products across 12 major categories for the final selection. The voting page recorded over 19,300 visits, reflecting widespread industry attention to this event. Ultimately, Turck stood out with solid technical strength and claimed the top award.
English Translation
The TIV AI camera stands out with powerful true edge intelligence. This self-learning AI vision camera directly deploys artificial intelligence technology on industrial production lines without any external auxiliary devices. After powering on, it only needs a small number of sample images for simple training to start efficient operation quickly.
Equipped with a 12-megapixel global shutter sensor and NVIDIA GPU, it embeds integrated AI applications including difference detection, classifier, object detector and barcode scanning, fully meeting real-time inspection demands of various high-standard industrial scenarios. Featuring robust structure and strong compatibility, it supports easy integration via M12 interfaces and Turck Automation Suite (TAS).
This award further consolidates Turck’s leading innovative position in the industrial AI sector, and once again reflects the company’s original aspiration to develop intelligent automation and sustainable automation solutions. You can check the official designated platform for the complete winners list and more relevant news of this reader selection activity.
Technical Advantages
Rapid commissioning without programming
IP67 protection grade, standalone operation, no extra edge hardware required
Real-time detection results, expandable via scalable network
With the new TIV AI camera, Turck brings a landmark transformation to industrial image processing. No complex programming is required; users only need to train the smart camera with a few sample images.
As Turck Intelligent Vision Camera, TIV can independently learn patterns and deviations, and reliably distinguish qualified and defective parts as well as different product categories. Neural network training and inference are executed directly on the camera, supported by a high-performance 12MP global shutter sensor (4th-gen Sony Pregius S) and NVIDIA Jetson Nano GPU with 4GB memory, enabling on-device real-time image processing.
Flexible, Efficient and User-Friendly
The TIV12MG-Q110N comes with four pre-installed AI applications: deviation inspection, classification, object detection and code reading, covering core industrial vision tasks ranging from completeness inspection and product classification to target positioning and 1D/2D barcode recognition.
It can independently analyze and evaluate designated inspection areas, and directly output coordinates, confidence scores and pass/fail signals to PLC or IT systems. Featuring standard C-mount interface for flexible lens matching, and optional protective housing to reach IP67 protection grade. Its decentralized and robust design integrating control system, lighting unit, sensor and power supply makes it ideal for direct on-site deployment on production lines.
Seamless Integration with TAS
Intuitive operation is available via web browser. Fully integrated into Turck Automation Suite (TAS), it simplifies device management and facilitates digital maintenance and monitoring workflow.
Equipped with M12 connectors for power supply, network, trigger signal and I/O interfaces, the camera can be easily embedded into existing industrial systems. Local operation, transferable datasets and neural networks support scalable deployment without additional edge computing hardware or extra licensing fees.
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SICK Application | SICK Inspector8512 Smart Camera + AI Powers Candy Residue Inspection on Molds
2026-05-22
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SICK Application
Overview
Inspection of candy residue on molds is a crucial quality control step after candy production. Traditional vision algorithms feature cumbersome debugging and high deployment costs. Equipped with high-resolution imaging, flexible integration capability and powerful built-in AI inspection tools, the SICK Inspector8512 smart camera delivers a stable, accurate and professional solution for candy residue detection on molds.
01 Industry Pain Points
Candy residue inspection on molds is vital to guarantee product quality, demolding effect and food safety during candy manufacturing. Nonetheless, special mold structures and harsh production line conditions bring multiple challenges to conventional vision algorithms:
Diverse shapes of products and molds
Complex mold structures and various candy types result in poor versatility of traditional algorithms. They fail to adapt to diverse scenarios, accompanied by tedious debugging and high adaptation costs.
Low distinguishability due to similar color and texture
Candies share similar color with mold materials with low contrast. Conventional vision algorithms are prone to misjudgment and missing detection, making stable identification of residual candies impossible.
Insufficient equipment integration and compatibility
Multiple industrial communication protocols need to be supported, while traditional devices have limited communication performance. Complicated system configuration leads to difficult and costly deployment and maintenance.
Strict on-site reliability requirements
Inspection results directly affect quality management and production traceability. Changes of workshop temperature, humidity, light and other environmental factors easily undermine the stability of traditional solutions.
02 SICK Inspector8512 Solution
Inspection Requirements
Detect randomly distributed residual candies on molds.
Transmit detection results to PLC via PROFINET communication.
Detection Difficulties
The field of view is wide, while residual candies to be detected are tiny, forming small target detection within a large viewing range.
Residual candies vary in color and size.
Solution Selection
Detection Procedures
After positioning the camera and light source, access the camera software interface via browser. Set proper parameters including exposure time, focal length, contrast and brightness to capture clear images.
Clarity image
Add the AI object detection tool and pre-train the model with samples of residual candies at different positions on molds to identify candy residues on mold surfaces. The Inspector8512 smart camera is equipped with Nova image processing software, which integrates abundant image processing algorithms for users to quickly build customized processing workflows.
Comprehensive image processing algorithms
No OK image of the candy was detected.
Detected the NG image of the candy
Transmit detection results to PLC or host computer via applicable communication modes, including digital IO output signals, TCP/IP, PROFINET and EtherNet/IP. Captured images can also be saved to the host computer through FTP for subsequent traceability and inquiry.
03 Solution Advantages
12-megapixel high-resolution imaging: Equipped with a 12MP high-definition CMOS sensor and external high-performance lighting, it clearly captures residual candies in mold gaps and edges.
Minimalist web visual configuration: Adopting web interface based on SICK Nova platform. No professional programming required, enabling both technical and general staff to quickly set parameters and build inspection solutions.
AI intelligent detection: Adopt AI object detection tool. Accurately identify mold candy residues via sample training without complex rule programming, delivering stable and reliable inspection performance.
Flexible optical adaptation: Standard C-Mount lens interface with manually adjustable focal length. Compatible with various external lenses and lighting modules to meet diverse mold installation and inspection requirements.
Easy industrial integration: Supports mainstream industrial buses including dual-port EtherNet/IP and PROFINET. Combined with high-speed I/O, it can be rapidly connected to production line PLC and control systems.
04 Basic Camera Parameters
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Over 180,000 mobile robots rolled off the production line! Hikvision delivers another outstanding performance.
2026-05-12
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Recently, Jia Yonghua, CEO of Hikvision Robotics, revealed in his keynote speech Open Collaboration for a Leap Toward Embodied Intelligent Manufacturing that the company serves over 20,000 customers covering more than 1,000 segmented application scenarios. Its machine vision product shipments have exceeded 10 million units, the number of mobile robots rolling off the production line has surpassed 180,000, and its self-developed industrial software has been licensed to over 600,000 users. This set of impressive figures underscores the company’s profound accumulation and solid strength in the industry.
Meanwhile, drawing on a decade of in-depth industry experience and massive data accumulation, Hikvision Robotics has proposed a brand-new paradigm — Embodied Intelligent Manufacturing. From its perspective, Embodied Intelligent Manufacturing is not merely a single technological upgrade, but an entirely new development paradigm for smart manufacturing. Its core lies in building an intelligent architecture that features both high flexibility and replicability.
Hikvision Robotics aims to enable intelligent devices to truly “be deployable on the workshop floor and capable of replicating value", realize one machine for multiple uses and rapid adaptation to new scenarios, and drive the manufacturing industry to achieve a qualitative leap from automation to full intelligence.
Growing from 10,000 units to 180,000 units today
Backed by Hikvision, Hikvision Robotics was officially founded in 2016, emerging as a highly competitive new force in the robotics market.
Over the past decade, leveraging its accumulated algorithms and software and hardware development capabilities, Hikvision Robotics has built its foundation on core technologies including multi-dimensional perception, artificial intelligence, navigation and control, as well as decision-making and planning. Focusing on the fields of industrial IoT, smart logistics and intelligent manufacturing, it adheres to the core strategy of "Smart Integration, Coordination of Eyes, Hands and Feet". The company comprehensively promotes the in-depth integration of AI with perception, decision-making and execution systems, and continues to deepen its layout and expansion in core businesses such as machine vision (Eyes), mobile robots (Feet), and articulated robots (Hands). In April this year, Hikvision Robotics launched more than 35 annual new products and solutions, covering the three major product lines of machine vision and application scenarios across various industries.
The machine vision business, serving as the "Eyes", marks the starting point of Hikvision Robotics. In 2016, the company launched its first industrial camera, taking its first step in the industry. From 300,000 pixels to 604 million pixels, and from 90 frames per second to exposure control accurate to 0.0002 seconds, continuous technological iteration has enabled it to gradually establish a complete machine vision product system. By 2019, the installed base of Hikvision Robotics industrial cameras had reached 1 million units.
Mobile robots as the "feet" and articulated robots as the "hands" are pivotal for Hikvision Robotics to advance from automation to autonomy.
In 2017, the company not only realized precise workshop-wide material transportation at workstations via transfer robots, but also took the lead in deploying fork-type robots, continuously expanding application boundaries.
In 2019, the installed base of its mobile robots exceeded 10,000 units. Meanwhile, it took the lead in delivering AMR automatic charging station projects and launched omnidirectional fork-type robots.
In 2021, AMR shipments surpassed 30,000 units, serving over 1,500 customers worldwide.
2024 marked another milestone, with the cumulative offline output of all categories of mobile robots exceeding 100,000 units.
According to UK-based firm Interact Analysis, Hikvision Robotics has ranked first globally in mobile robot shipments for three consecutive years.
Today, Hikvision Robotics boasts a comprehensive AMR portfolio ranging from latent robots to fork-type robots, and from bin handling to heavy-load traction. It also offers articulated robots that integrate drive and control with perception capabilities, boosting production flexibility and process intelligence.
These products have achieved full coverage across key sectors including automotive manufacturing, 3C electronics, photovoltaic energy, lithium battery energy storage, e-commerce and retail, 3PL, and healthcare, deeply embedding themselves into the production workflows of various industries.
In 2025, Hikvision Robotics recorded revenue of 6.452 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.82%, with its revenue proportion rising to 6.97%. Meanwhile, its IPO process is advancing in an orderly manner.
Closing Remarks
Morgan Stanley pointed out that China is not only the world’s largest robotics consumer market, but also accounts for 55% of global robot production, making it the core hub of the global robotics industry.
According to customs statistics, China’s robotics industry maintained strong and steady overseas expansion momentum in the first quarter of this year, with accelerated pace in exploring global markets. The total export value of all categorized robots reached 11.32 billion yuan, with products available in 148 countries and regions worldwide, showcasing the strength of Chinese intelligent manufacturing across the globe.
Industrial robots stood out with outstanding export performance, hitting an export value of 3.16 billion yuan, surging 42% year-on-year and fully demonstrating the core competitiveness of China’s robotics sector.
Backed by solid technological strength, a complete industrial chain ecosystem and cost-performance advantages, Chinese robots have now become a standout new business card for China’s foreign trade.
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Acceleration of Localization Substitution: China's PLC Market Scale Expected to Reach 16.54 Billion Yuan in 2023
2025-07-02
As the main battlefield in the field of industrial automation control, PLC provides very reliable control applications for various automated control equipment, meeting the current automation needs of industrial enterprises. On the other hand, PLC must also rely on other new technologies to cope with the impact of gradually shrinking market share, especially industrial PCs.
The market size of PLC in China is expected to reach 16.54 billion yuan in 2023.
At present, the basic programming software for PLC can be summarized into four forms:
It has developed from a self-developed PLC kernel based on international standards to an integrated development environment (IDE), but it does not take commercialization as the goal, only serving its own control systems or customized control systems.
It has developed from a self-developed PLC kernel based on international standards to an integrated development environment (IDE), with the main feature of being productized, which can provide commercial software kits for any unit in society with needs.
Cooperating with foreign companies to develop an integrated development environment suitable for the needs of the domestic industrial control market based on their PLC kernels, including providing a complete software environment and development path for domestic embedded chips.
A software platform completely based on self-development and the latest technologies in the IT industry. It is characterized by not only meeting the various requirements of traditional PLC programming, but also adapting to the requirements of modern PLC applications in the industrial Internet environment, and facilitating the introduction of artificial intelligence.
In the market aspect, the domestic PLC market has currently formed a scale of tens of billions of yuan. Under the premise of policy guidance, technological breakthroughs, and continuous release of market demand, the market space and import substitution demand for medium and large PLCs will definitely be opened up, and investment opportunities will also become more and more. Industry authoritative assessments show that it is expected that by 2023, the market size of PLC in China is expected to reach 16.54 billion yuan, among which the market sizes of small PLCs and medium and large PLCs are 8.072 billion yuan and 8.468 billion yuan respectively.
The supply of high-end products in China is insufficient, and the country needs to accelerate the process of PLC localization.
At present, the issues that PLC needs to address still include the adoption of new technologies, system openness, and pricing.
With the expansion of industrial production scale and the improvement of automation levels in the production of general basic products, the cost-performance advantage has become more significant, significantly enhancing competitiveness in the global mid-to-low-end market and driving a rapid growth in export volume. It is noteworthy that China's PLC import volume has also maintained a relatively stable increase, mainly due to the insufficient supply of domestic high-end products. The continuous development of downstream traditional industries and emerging industries has driven growing demand for high-end PLC products, leading to a sustained increase in industry imports.
From the perspective of global supply and demand market trends, in recent two years, affected by factors such as chip shortages and rising raw material prices, the upward trend in PLC market prices has been very evident. Since last year, global PLC giants have successively initiated price hikes. Among them, the price increase range for Rockwell's PLC products has varied from 3% to 36%, with the CLX1756-L8SP series—boasting huge market sales—seeing a 36% price surge. Price increases for products under foreign-funded enterprises such as Omron, Delta, and Emerson have also exceeded 6%.
Domestic brand PLCs account for a very small share of the domestic PLC market and have not yet formed an industrial scale, mainly concentrating in the field of small PLCs. In Q3 2022, the localization rate of small PLCs was approximately 20.2%, that of medium and large PLCs was below 10%, and the localization rate of large PLC systems was only about 1%.
Over the years, China's PLC technology has also made remarkable progress. There are few traces of imitation in both hardware and software directions, and independent development and self-design have become the mainstream.
In the field of domestic industrial infrastructure, the call for localization and intelligence of PLCs, especially medium and large PLCs, is getting louder and louder, which also brings opportunities for the local PLC industry to overtake on a curve. In recent years, with domestic industrial control enterprises continuing to make efforts in product technology research and development and market promotion, many local brands such as Inovance, Delta, SUPCON, HollySys, Yonghong, Ankong, Taian, Fengwei, Aoto, Xinjie, Kewei, Zhenghang and others have actively expanded the market. Kaiyuan Securities said in the latest research report that domestic manufacturers are seizing the market share of Japanese and Taiwanese manufacturers in the small PLC market by virtue of the advantages of high cost performance, short delivery time and rapid response to customer needs. Many of the leading domestic PLC enterprises have been listed on the A-share market. Driven by the continuous development needs of emerging industries and traditional industries, the downstream application fields of the PLC industry are also showing a diversified development trend. In particular, domestic industries such as power batteries, automobiles, semiconductors, as well as traditional manufacturing industries such as textiles and machinery, have become key markets for the future development of the PLC industry
In the era of intelligent manufacturing, PLC technology urgently needs innovative optimization.
Furthermore, at the technical level, with the continuous deepening of intelligent manufacturing, the algorithms of PLC software need to be further optimized for the production requirements of Industry 4.0. Based on the integration of artificial intelligence and big data, the PLC industry should further optimize software to provide tools more in line with actual industry applications, enhance the problem-solving capabilities of industrial algorithms, and reduce algorithm complexity. Additionally, as a tool to assist industrial manufacturing, the underlying programs of PLC should be further encapsulated into concise and easy-to-use toolkits, providing simple interfaces for technicians to call, so as to simplify the operation of complex production processes.
In recent years, with the continuous popularization and application of cloud computing in the industrial field, the deployment of cloud-based PLCs in 5G base stations has injected new vitality into this traditional PLC technology. Based on their technical advantages in 5G, the three major telecom operators have strengthened cooperation with traditional industrial control enterprises to lay out "5G + cloud-based PLC" solutions, striving to seize the intelligent manufacturing market. In 2020, China Telecom carried out a distributed deployment transformation of traditional factory PLCs for Midea's microwave oven production line, adopting 5G network-based centralized PLC deployment. In 2021, China Unicom, Tongtu Technology, and Sany Heavy Industry joined forces to grandly release the 5G cloud-based PLC application for the global lighthouse factory. In June 2022, the China Mobile Research Institute, China Mobile's Enterprise Business Division, together with Comba Network and Tongtu Technology, launched the industry's first 5G cloud-based industrial base station and completed end-to-end verification.
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