Cognex ID Readers Selected by Leading Aerospace Industry Supplier.

NATICK, Mass. -- Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the world's leading supplier of machine vision sensors and systems, announced today that it has received a purchase order in excess of a quarter of a million dollars from a leading supplier to the aerospace industry. The customer has purchased Cognex's DataMan(TM) 7500 handheld ID readers for a major project requiring part traceability.

Cognex's DataMan ID Readers are designed to quickly and reliably read codes...including bar codes and two-dimensional codes...that have been stamped, scribed, etched or printed directly on the surfaces of manufactured goods. By marking each item with a unique and permanent identifying code, each part can be tracked throughout its entire life cycle....starting from the parts manufacturer who tracks the parts through production, warehousing and shipping, to their customers who track the parts through assembly, distribution, and in their repair depots around the world.

This particular aerospace industry supplier will use the Cognex DataMan ID readers to identify and track jet engine turbine blades for internal process control purposes, and to comply with Department of Defense regulations which now require that unique and permanent identifying marks be placed on every item that is serialized, mission critical or which has a value greater than $5,000.

"Reading codes that are directly marked on the surfaces of manufactured goods (known as Direct Part Marking or DPM) is a fast-growing application area for machine vision," said Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Cognex's Chairman and CEO. "The semiconductor industry has for many years relied on Cognex vision systems to track silicon wafers through the chip fabrication process, and recently, both the automotive and aerospace industries have started to purchase Cognex readers in volume as they, too, recognize the benefits of part traceability."

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, and markets machine vision sensors and systems, or devices that can "see." Cognex vision sensors are used in factories around the world to automate the manufacture of a wide range of items and to assure their quality. Cognex is the world's leader in the machine vision industry, having shipped more than 300,000 machine vision systems, representing over $2 billion in cumulative revenue, since the company's founding in 1981. In addition to its corporate headquarters in Natick, Massachusetts, Cognex also has regional offices and distributors located throughout North America, Japan, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Visit Cognex on-line at http://www.cognex.com.