Dalsa increasing R&D expenditure

When times are tough it’s often the R&D department that faces the axe. So it’s good to see Dalsa taking the long-term view and actually increasing R&D spending. The mid-year results show spending up from $15.2m in ’08 to $17.1m in the first half of 2009. When viewed as a percentage of revenue, that’s an even more impressive jump from 14% to almost 22%.

Half of Dalsa’s revenue comes from Digital Imaging, and of that, almost half is attributed to the machine vision market. That means they generate between $40 and $50 million a year from machine vision sales. If the R&D funds are allocated on the same basis this would suggest they’re investing some $8m a year in developing new and improved products for machine vision. Let’s hope this means upgrades to the line scan and matrix cameras, Sapera and Sherlock software packages, and the range of iPD “vision appliances,” (remember those?)

In another positive sign, Dalsa also report encouraging signs from the Asia/Pacific region. This is the market that took the steepest dive back in the first quarter, so perhaps it’s a sign that some confidence is returning. Let’s hope so; we could all do with some sales growth.