Strategy Analyst - M&A and ESG

Hexagon AB has agreed to acquire Rocscience, a geotechnical and engineering analysis software provider, from TA Associates and Rocscience's founders and management for an enterprise value of $535 million. The Toronto-based company will join Hexagon's Radar & Monitoring Division. Rocscience's software helps engineers model rock, soil and structure behaviour, serving mining, civil engineering and energy customers in around 125 countries. The company is expected to generate revenue approaching $50 million in 2026, with over 80% recurring revenue and EBITAC margins above 40%. The acquisition combines Hexagon's sensor and monitoring technology with Rocscience's predictive modelling capabilities, creating a feedback loop between real-world data and engineering analysis. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary conditions.

After IMTS 2026: where machine vision fits into the manufacturing system. September 28, 2026 At IMTS 2026, machine vision was rarely the whole story. It appeared within inspection stations, measurement equipment and robotic systems designed to solve wider manufacturing problems. That is what made the Chicago show useful to watch from a vision perspective. Ahead of IMTS, MVPro asked whether suppliers could move beyond promising AI capabilities and show how vision works in production. Announcements from exhibitors and the organiser's post-show report offer some answers, while leaving an equally important question open: how do these systems perform once the demonstration is over? Inspection starts with the part and the defect. Several exhibitors described vision through a specific inspection task rather than a general promise to find defects. At IMTS, senswork presented one demonstration using a Cognex In-Sight 3800 smart camera to identify surface cracks on housings. A second used a 3D scanner to measure the geometry and continuity of sealing beads on automotive components. Overview AI, meanwhile, promoted two live inspection stations running on production parts, with applications engineers available to discuss visitors' own inspection challenges. These examples point to a practical way of evaluating AI inspection. The relevant questions are what the system must detect, how much acceptable variation it encounters, and what happens when parts or production conditions change. An effective demonstration can make those questions easier to discuss, although it cannot by itself prove long-term performance on a customer's line. Vision is becoming one part of quality measurement. IMTS also reinforced the connection between machine vision and the wider metrology market. Manufacturers may use optical inspection, tactile measurement, 3D scanning and other methods at different points in production. The choice depends on the part, the measurement required and how quickly a result is needed. Hexagon's OPTIV S illustrates that overlap. Introduced for commercial availability at IMTS and AMB, the optical coordinate measuring machine combines vision measurement with tactile and multisensor capabilities. Hexagon says initial application tests showed approximately 15% shorter inspection cycles and highlights a larger field-of-view vision sensor as one contributor to throughput. Those are the company's reported results, rather than an independently established improvement across applications. The launch also shows why the timing of product claims matters. Hexagon has announced AI-assisted measurement features for the platform, but says these will be introduced in phases through 2026 and 2027. For a manufacturer assessing the system now, the available capabilities and the development roadmap are separate considerations. For vision companies, the broader point is that image capture and analysis increasingly sit within a quality workflow. A measurement becomes more useful when it can be connected to the correct part, reviewed alongside other results and used to inform a production decision. Robotic vision is being judged by flexibility. The organiser's post-show report provided a particularly relevant example for machine vision: a proposed machine-tending application combining a camera with AI to handle changing parts. Intrinsic Innovation told IMTS that its approach aims to reduce the need for dedicated fixturing and robot reprogramming when a new part is introduced. The report also described a visitor considering an AI-enhanced vision system as part of a pallet-loading solution. These examples do not establish that flexible machine tending has become simple to deploy. They do show where suppliers see value. In a workshop producing varied parts, the time spent positioning components and updating a robot programme can determine whether automation is worthwhile. Vision's contribution is therefore measured through the operation of the whole cell, not solely through its ability to recognise a part. What the show tells MVPro Media (and what it cannot). IMTS reported 91,295 registrants and 1,788 exhibiting companies, with AI and automation prominent in its account of the event. For machine vision, the more useful observation is how often visual sensing was presented in relation to a manufacturing outcome: finding a particular defect, measuring a component faster or helping a robot accommodate variation. The public material has limits. Supplier descriptions explain what systems are designed to do, and show demonstrations reveal how they are presented to prospective customers. Neither tells MVPro Media how much setup an individual installation will require, how performance will change over time or what it will cost to maintain. Those questions are the next test for the technologies highlighted at IMTS. As vision becomes part of larger inspection and automation systems, its value will depend on how reliably it helps manufacturers solve the production problem that led them to consider it in the first place.

Advanced manufacturing at IMTS 2026: 3D printing and AI and drones, oh my! By CNC Seeker · Friday, September 25, 2026 · 3 min read · Source: 3DPrint.com | Additive Manufacturing Business Key takeaways. * IMTS 2026 attracted ≈ 90 000 visitors, 1.7 k exhibitors, and filled 1.17 M sq ft of exhibit floor at McCormick Place. * Additive manufacturing (AM) moved from a peripheral "novelty" zone to the core metal-removal hall, signaling mainstream adoption. * Hexagon's Geomagic Design X now fills missing geometry in reverse-engineered scans with <= 0.02 mm accuracy, rivaling Autodesk ReCap and Siemens NX. * Stratasys debuted the J750 Pro (build volume 330 x 250 x 200 mm, 16 μm layer resolution) for automotive-grade parts, boosting part-per-hour rates by 30 % over the previous J750. * AI-driven robotic cells demonstrated 99.7 % defect-free machining on 5-axis CNCs, while drone-based inspection cut inspection time from 8 h to 2 h on a 1 000 ft^2 shop floor. IMTS 2026: A snapshot of the modern factory floor. Scale and scope. The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) returned to Chicago's McCormick Place with 90 000+ attendees, 1 700+ exhibitors, and 1.17 million sq ft of floor space - up 8 % in exhibit area from 2023. The event's three-building layout (East, South, North) grouped technologies by workflow stage, giving visitors a logical "factory-floor" tour. East building: quality, metrology & software. The first day was dominated by quality-assurance tools. Hexagon's booth showcased its Geomagic Design X reverse-engineering suite, which can reconstruct missing features from incomplete point clouds using AI-based surface inference. The software claims <= 0.02 mm dimensional accuracy and supports over 120 file formats, including STEP, IGES, and STL. Hexagon vs. Competitors (reverse-engineering software). | Feature | Geomagic Design X | Autodesk ReCap | Siemens NX Reverse Engineering | | Max point-cloud size | 500 M points | 200 M points | 400 M points | | Accuracy (typical) | <= 0.02 mm | <= 0.05 mm | <= 0.03 mm | | AI-fill missing geometry | | | | | | | | Supported CAD formats | 120+ | 70+ | 100+ | | Typical license cost (USD) | $12 k-$20 k | $7 k-$12 k | $15 k-$25 k | South building: Additive Manufacturing takes center stage. Additive firms were no longer hidden in a side corridor; they occupied a primary hall adjacent to the metal-removal zone. This placement underscores AM's role in post-process machining and tool-path optimization. Stratasys J750 Pro highlights. * Build volume: 330 x 250 x 200 mm * Layer resolution: 16 μm (minimum) * Materials: Up to 5 multi-color/transparent resins simultaneously * Throughput: 30 % faster than the legacy J750, enabling ≈ 120 cc/hr of printable volume The machine demonstrated automotive-grade brackets - lightweight, high-strength components that passed ISO 9001-based tensile testing (UTS ≈ 70 MPa). North building: automation, robotics & AI. The north wing featured AI-driven CNC cells and drone-based inspection platforms. * Robotic 5-axis CNC (KUKA-integrated) achieved a 99.7 % first-pass yield on titanium aerospace brackets, cutting scrap rates from 2 % to 0.3 %. * Inspection drones equipped with LiDAR scanned a 1 000 ft^2 shop floor in 2 hours, a 75 % time reduction versus traditional handheld scanners. Cross-Workflow integration. The proximity of AM booths to metal-removal stations illustrated a closed-loop workflow: parts are printed, then directly machined without re-handling. This reduces lead time by an estimated 48 hours per part and cuts material waste by ≈ 12 % compared with a segregated process. Bottom line. IMTS 2026 confirmed that additive manufacturing, AI-powered robotics, and drone inspection are no longer experimental add-ons but integral components of the modern production line. With record attendance and a layout that mirrors real-world shop floors, the show highlighted how technologies such as Hexagon's Geomagic Design X and Stratasys's J750 Pro are delivering measurable gains in accuracy, speed, and cost. For manufacturers seeking to stay competitive, the message is clear: embrace integrated, data-driven processes now, or risk falling behind the rapidly evolving industry standard.