Cognex Announces Record Bookings of More Than $1 Million for New Product; Orders for In-Sight exceeding expectations.

Business/Technology Editors

NATICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2000

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ - CGNX), the world's leading supplier of machine vision systems, today announced that it has surpassed $1 million in bookings for its new In-Sight 2000 vision sensor, which was introduced earlier this year.

In-Sight is an innovative, low-cost machine vision sensor that puts the power of Cognex's proven vision technology into the hands of manufacturing engineers who need relatively simple and inexpensive machine vision sensors to control manufacturing processes at numerous points on their production lines. Current customers for In-Sight represent a wide range of industries including semiconductor manufacturing, electronics assembly, automotive manufacturing, consumer packaging, and pharmaceuticals. Typical applications for In-Sight include inspecting connectors used in consumer electronic products such as cell phones, and inspecting the size and shape of gaskets used in the assembly of automobile engines.

"We are very excited to have passed this milestone sooner than we expected," said Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Cognex's President, CEO and Chairman. "Our sales team began to actively sell this product to customers only two months ago, and passing the $1 million mark in so short a time makes the introduction of In-Sight the most successful product launch in Cognex history."

Dr. Shillman continued, "In addition to bookings ramping up more quickly than expected, we are also very happy to see that there are many orders from customers with large, funded automation projects who have purchased a single In-Sight unit for evaluation, and who expect to place significant follow-on orders soon after their evaluations are completed."

"With our more complex vision systems, the sales cycle can take many months," Dr. Shillman said. "However, because of In-Sight's unique design and ease of use, we have shortened that sales cycle to just a few days. The product is so easy to understand, that we are able to demonstrate it on the web, thereby eliminating the need for face-to-face meetings or product demonstrations in many cases; this should enable us to lower our sales and support costs quite dramatically."

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets machine vision systems, or computers that can "see." Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped to date more than 100,000 machine vision systems. Cognex's Modular Vision Systems Division, headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, specializes in machine vision systems which are used for automating the manufacture of a wide range of discrete items and for assuring their quality. Cognex's Surface Inspection Systems Division, headquartered in Alameda, California, specializes in machine vision systems which are used for inspecting the surfaces of products manufactured in a continuous fashion, such as metals, paper, and plastics. In addition to its corporate headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Visit Cognex on-line at http://www.cognex.com.

Certain statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the company's current expectations and estimates as to prospective events and circumstances which may or may not be in the company's control and as to which there can be no firm assurances given. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. The company wishes to caution readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. Further discussions of risk factors are also available in the company's registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.