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City Technology is one company that seems to know how to run a sensor manufacturing business, as Stephen McClelland explains.

This extract from a recent survey of micro‐machining in the USA outlines the techniques and difficulties of this ‘upwardly mobile’ technology.

To discuss the application of direct part marking identification (DPMI) using 2D matrix codes, the use of which is increasing in industries as diverse as automotive and medical instruments.Design/methodology/approach – The benefits of 2D codes are explained, emphasising that they have sufficient storage capacity to provide data for tracking a part during its manufacture and through the supply chain and allow traceability throughout its lifetime. It describes the operation of Cognex, one of the leading manufacturers of ID products and also the world's largest supplier of machine vision systems is Cognex. It explains that initially the electronics industry exploited Cognex' code reading technology and an application at a German board manufacturer is described. Another system, at a diesel engine injector manufacturer in France, has 42 Cognex systems reading 2D codes and guiding robots in assembly. Also described is a new range of Cognex hand‐held and fixed‐mount 1D and 2D code readers “loaded” with software that allows reading in difficult conditions and with degraded or partially obscured codes.Findings – The DPMI market has expanded into industries other than automotive, which has prompted Cognex to establish a new division of ID products.Originality/value – The paper emphasises the importance of 2D codes in product traceability and indicates how vision technology is being utilised to read these codes even under difficult conditions.

Sensor Review staff provide their regular survey of innovation in the ‘Land of the Rising Sun.’

Micromachining is becoming an increasingly important technique in sensor fabrication and could have huge potential commercially, as Stephen McClelland explains.

A new initiative looks like being important for the sensor industry, as Stephen McClelland reports.

This paper aims to reveal developments in sensors applied to packaging lines.

Machine vision systems including special‐purpose smart cameras and a high‐speed camera are examined. The technology of radio frequency identification (RFID) is explained, and some products relevant to packaging are highlighted. Advances in X‐ray, metal detection and gas‐leak detection equipment are discussed.

Manufacturers are making smart cameras and high‐speed cameras easier to use. There is a trend for manufacturers to provide portable as well as in‐line instrumentation, for example, in code readers and gas leak detectors. RFID is an emerging technique for improving traceability in the supply chain, and some labelling machines additionally program an embedded chip.

Tracks the latest developments in sensors for engineers in the food and pharmaceutical packaging industries.

In the early 1980s Elmwood Sensors, part of Hawker Siddeley's Instruments and Controls Division, was totally reliant on a single 15‐year‐old product range of electro‐mechanical thermostats using a bimetallic strip. Dissatisfied with this insecure situation and uncertain about the long‐term sales life for electromechanical sensors, the company decided that it should start looking for advanced technology substitutes.

Biosensors have been described as a synergistic combination of biochemistry and microelectronics.