North American machine vision sales grew 16% in the second quarter compared with Q2 of 2010, according to the latest numbers from the Automated Imaging Association (AIA).

“The double-digit growth of the market in 2Q 2011 is particularly impressive in view of the fact that it’s based on a comparison to 2Q 2010, when the MV recovery was already in full swing,” said Paul Kellett, AIA’s director of market analysis.

The AIA report recorded robust sales across almost all major machine vision supplier markets, including cameras, lighting, optics, software, application-specific machine vision systems, and smart cameras. The industry expects sales to stay at current levels or to increase in the next six months, with just 9% of reporting companies expecting sales to decrease.

“It is encouraging that for the sixth quarter in a row the machine vision market in North America has recorded solid year-over-year growth,” said Jeff Burnstein, AIA president.