VISION ENGINEERING LIMITED

About us

Patented eyepiece-free optics: all-day inspection with no eye strain, plus precision measurement systems.

Every part on every stand at this show has to be inspected, measured and signed off by somebody. Vision Engineering (Stand Q164) makes the equipment that person uses and has done, from Surrey, since 1958.

Vision Engineering's stand (Q164) stand covers the full quality journey in one place: from an operator looking at a solder joint, to a 3D image streamed to a customer in another country, to a fully automated CNC video measurement system producing an auditable report on a 400mm casting. Eight systems, one badge, no appointment needed.

The differentiator is the bit you can't get from a brochure. Vision Engineering's patented eyepiece-less optics have to be experienced. Visitors put their own parts under the head, stand up straight, keep their glasses on, and see the difference in about four seconds. That is the whole reason to walk onto the stand rather than scan a QR code.

Four reasons to visit Vision Engineering Stand Q164

1. Try it with your own part.
Bring a component, a PCB, a moulding, a weld, a machined feature. Put it under any system on the stand and see it magnified, measured or streamed in 3D. Every claim below is demonstrable in under a minute.

2. Solve the inspection problem you already have.
Operators who won't use the microscope because it hurts. Inspection that has become the bottleneck. Measurement results that change depending on who took them. A customer who wants photographic evidence with every delivery. Every one of these has a system on the stand pointed at it.

3. See the whole quality chain, not one product.
Hand-held magnifier to fully automated CNC metrology, from the same manufacturer, with the same support behind it. Visitors comparing point solutions across the hall can compare a whole route on one stand.

4. Talk to people who make it.
Vision Engineering designs and manufactures in the UK. The people on the stand can answer questions about optics, tolerances, stage travel and integration without going away to ask.

What's on stand Q164?

Ergonomic inspection systems - the reason people work faster

Mantis PIXO
Eyepiece-less stereo microscope with integrated 5MP camera. 3x - 15x.

The classic Mantis, now with digital capture built in. The operator looks into a large, bright, stereo image floating in front of them no eyepieces, no squinting, no leaning. They can wear their glasses or safety specs. They can move their head and see round the side of a component, into a hole, under an undercut, because Dynamic View Optics shifts the perspective as they move. Objectives from 3x to 15x, plus super-long-working-distance options at 6x and 8x for rework with a soldering iron in hand.

The PIXO adds a 5MP rear-illuminated CMOS camera over USB 3.0 2592 x 1944 stills, video to 48fps, live digital overlays and annotation. So the same head that keeps the operator comfortable also produces the evidence.

Who it's for: electronics assembly and rework, precision engineering, medical devices, plastics and rubber inspection, watchmaking, anyone doing fine hand work for a full shift. If a manager on the stand mentions operator turnover, absence or complaints about eye strain on an inspection line, this is the demonstration to run.

How long can your operators actually stay at a microscope before they need a break?

Lynx EVO
Eyepiece-less stereo microscope, 2.7x - 240x. Award-winning.

Where Mantis is the everyday workhorse, Lynx EVO is the high-magnification instrument the same eyepiece-free freedom, taken up to 240x. The Dynascope viewer uses a multi-lenticular disc carrying more than 3.5 million individual lenses to project a genuinely stereo, high-contrast image without an eyepiece anywhere near the operator's face.

Add the optional 360° rotating viewer and the operator can inspect a component from any angle without touching it, moving it or re-fixturing it which matters when the part is delicate, contaminated, sterile or simply awkward.

Who it's for: electronics, aerospace, automotive, medical device manufacture, life sciences, dental, and any inspection or rework task where the detail is fine and the session is long. Also the system to show anybody who says "we already have a stereo microscope" the comparison makes itself.

Test us at the stand - Keep your glasses on, stand up straight, and tell me what you can see.

PicoZoom
Autofocus digital inspection microscope. 18.9x - 121.8x, one-click focus.

The straightforward, cost-effective answer to routine inspection. One click and it focuses no fiddling between parts, between magnifications or between operators. Motorised 0.7x - 4.5x optical zoom means no lens changes. Focus stacking builds a single sharp image of a component with real depth to it. Quadrant-controlled lighting kills the glare on shiny and low-contrast surfaces that ruins most inspection photographs. Measurement, annotation and report generation are built in.

2MP CMOS at 1080p/60fps, 100mm working distance, HDMI, USB 3.0 and LAN out.

Who it's for: PCB and solder joint inspection, goods-in inspection, medical device verification, defect analysis and documentation. Ideal where several people of varying experience share one station, or where a site needs consistent inspection records without a heavy capital case.

Ask yourself - How much of your inspection time is actually spent focusing?

ProteQ VISO
Desktop 3D digital stereo microscope. Glasses-free 3D, up to 314x, live 3D streaming.

The one that stops people walking past. Two stereo cameras (1920 — 1080 each, 60fps) feed a 4K auto-stereo lenticular display that tracks the viewer's eye position so the image is genuinely three-dimensional, on screen, with no glasses and nothing on the operator's head. The screen tilts 18° and works at 380 - 800mm, so operators of different heights share it comfortably.

Five objectives cover 7.1x to 314x with 10:1 optical zoom and working distances from 29mm to 176mm. On top of that sits the part that changes workflows: live 3D streaming. An inspector in Birmingham and a customer in Boston can look at the same part, in 3D, in real time, and agree. Add crosshairs and overlays, annotate directly on the 3D view, dimension features, compare side-by-side against a golden sample, replay a captured session, and export it all into a report. Kiosk mode locks it down for repeatable production use; PC mode opens it up for engineering.

Who it's for: electronics assembly, aerospace and defence, medical devices, automotive. Especially strong for contract manufacturers seeking first-article approval, distributed teams doing design review, supply chains verifying across sites, and regulated environments that need auditable inspection records rather than someone's word.

Your customer wants to see the defect. Show them live, in 3D, from their desk.

The measurement systems the reason people trust the number

Edge VISTA
Compact video measurement, 3-axis CNC control with 2-axis measurement. Telecentric optics, 5MP camera.

Built for parts that are flat or turned, and for the tolerance work where edge definition is everything. Telecentric, collimated optics remove the perspective error that makes a conventional lens read a different dimension depending on where the feature sits in the field of view so a batch measured at the edge of the field reads the same as a batch measured in the middle. The 5MP camera gives a large field of view, so more features are captured per position and fewer moves are needed.

Measuring range 200 — 100mm. M3 software with programmed routines, pattern recognition and GD&T.

Who it's for: turned-part and stamping producers, injection moulders, anyone measuring profiles and flat features in volume and arguing with a customer about who's right.

Edge APEX
Full 3-axis CNC video measurement with motorised 6.5:1 zoom.

The automation answer for the shop floor. Load the part, press start, walk away programmed inspection routines run the whole sequence in three axes with motorised zoom and produce a consistent, operator-independent result. Image stitching documents features larger than a single field of view. 2.3MP camera, 200 — 100 — 95/100mm measuring capacity, uncertainty from around 5µm.

Who it's for: high-volume manufacturers where inspection has become the bottleneck, and workshops moving off hand tools who want the repeatability without hiring a metrology specialist. Precision engineering, electronics, medical devices, injection moulding.

Ask yourself - How different are your measurements when a different person takes them?

LVC 400
Fully automated large-capacity CNC video measurement. 400 — 300 — 200mm, 25kg.

The heavyweight on the stand. Full CNC control in three axes over a 400— 300 — 200mm volume with a motorised stage rated to 25kg so it takes large components other benchtop video systems simply can't accept, or a full tray of small parts for unattended batch measurement.

Accuracy of 2.8 + (8L/1000) µm in X-Y, 3 + (10L/1000) µm in Z with the optional touch probe, and 0.1µm encoder resolution. Motorised zoom with 7- or 10-position optics; quadrant LED ring light, high-parallelism flat backlight or collimated LED backlight depending on what the feature needs. M-Series software handles feature measurement and construction, geometric tolerancing, DXF import and export, edge detection, SPC and Excel export so the CAD model goes in and the capability data comes out.

Who it's for: precision engineering, casting, plastic moulding, electronics and medical device manufacture. Specifically: anyone measuring big parts and small parts on two different machines, anyone whose CMM queue is the constraint, and anyone whose customer wants SPC data rather than a certificate.

What's the largest part you currently have to send out to measure?

Who should make the detour stand Q164?

If your organisation is involved in:

- Aerospace & defence auditable inspection records, awkward geometry, delicate parts, ProteQ VISO for supply-chain verification
- Automotive volume inspection without a volume headcount; Edge APEX, LVC 400
- Electronics solder joints, BGAs, rework and PCB inspection; Mantis PIXO, Lynx EVO, PicoZoom
- Medical devices traceability, regulated documentation, fine detail; ProteQ VISO, LVC 400, Edge
- Precision engineering & subcontract machining dimensional proof for demanding customers; the entire Edge and LVC range
- Plastics & moulding cavity-to-cavity consistency, edge definition on moulded features; Edge VISTA
- Composites & metals (with UK Metals Expo co-located) surface and defect inspection, large-part measurement