Plant-owned lifecycle
Implement, retrain, redeploy, and repeat largely with your own teams.
One factory. One price.
Add unlimited use cases without high per-use-case costs.
No hardware lock-ins
Expand without a mandatory proprietary camera or edge-device stack.
What does self-service Vision AI mean?
Plant-controlled lifecycle. Unlimited use cases under one factory license. Freedom to use supported hardware.
The plant keeps control. Capture, train, deploy, update, and extend inspections as production changes, with implementation support available when needed.
Plant-owned inspection workflow
- 01Capture
Collect representative images where the quality challenge occurs.
- 02Define
Plant experts identify the product, region, defect, severity, and decision.
- 03Train
Turn real production examples into a customer-specific inspection model.
- 04Deploy
Run the trained model on an edge device of your choice for real-time detection.
- 05Adapt and repeat
Add or retire defect classes, retrain, redeploy, and move to the next inspection.
Implementation support remains available when needed. Plant teams simply do not have to return to an outside specialist for every inspection change.
Why Vision AI works
Adaptable inspection is valuable. Plant-owned adaptability is what makes it scalable.
Works until the condition changes
Effective for a defined inspection, but a new product, defect, or visual condition can trigger another engineered project and maintenance dependency.
Can learn from production evidence
Models learn from labeled line images and can be retrained as products, processes, and quality definitions change.
Makes that adaptability plant-owned
Plant-controlled training and retraining, supported edge deployment, hardware freedom, and one factory price make repeatable expansion practical.
Vision AI makes adaptable inspection possible. United Vision gives the plant the control and economics to keep extending it.
Inspection capabilities
Eight inspection capabilities. Built around the jobs already on your floor.
From visible surface flaws to hidden inclusions, identification, assembly, movement, and safety, United Vision gives plant teams a consistent way to turn camera evidence into operating decisions.
DET / 01Inside + out
Surface & X-ray
Find scratches, dents, cracks, stains, weld flaws, internal voids, porosity, and foreign objects.
- Visible-surface segmentation
- X-ray and CT inspection
- Customer-defined severity thresholds
DET / 02Metrology
Dimensional gauging
Measure lengths, gaps, radii, hole positions, and tolerance bands without contact.
- Sub-pixel edge measurement
- Nominal-spec comparison
- Out-of-tolerance flagging
DET / 03Read + verify
OCR & characters
Read printed, etched, embossed, and dot-peened serial numbers, date codes, and lot IDs.
- Low-contrast character reading
- Format and value verification
- Mismatch and legibility checks
DET / 04Build complete
Assembly & presence
Confirm that required components are present, correctly placed, and properly oriented.
- Presence and absence checks
- Position and orientation checks
- Variant-specific inspection recipes
DET / 05Traceable
Label & barcode
Validate the label, inspect print quality, and read 1D, QR, and DataMatrix codes.
- Placement, skew, and clarity
- Printed-text cross-checks
- Logged reads for traceability
DET / 06What changed?
Anomaly detection
Establish a visual baseline from good parts and flag deviations that do not belong.
- Good-part baseline training
- Heat-mapped deviations
- Expert feedback for retraining
DET / 07Move the flow
Count & sort
Count and classify mixed parts, then connect the decision to the configured sort or reject path.
- Type, grade, and defect classes
- Reject and diverter triggers
- Live counts and yield visibility
DET / 08Work safely
Safety & compliance
Monitor restricted zones, PPE, and the sequence of critical process steps.
- Zone and machine-envelope watch
- Configured PPE verification
- Time-stamped event evidence
Inspection loop
Watch plant expertise become a live, adaptable inspection.
The camera supplies the frame. The plant expert defines what matters. United Vision carries that decision to the edge and makes feedback part of the next improvement.
01 / 05Representative images
Capture
Collect representative images where the quality challenge occurs.
Start with production evidence from the line and condition where the inspection needs to work.
02 / 05Plant expertise
Define
Plant experts identify the product, region, defect, severity, and decision.
The people closest to the work define what the inspection needs to recognize and how the result should be used.
03 / 05Customer-specific model
Train
Turn real production examples into a customer-specific inspection model.
Use representative visual evidence to train and refine the inspection for the actual production condition.
04 / 05Real-time detection
Deploy
Run the trained model on an edge device of your choice for real-time detection.
Bring the trained inspection back to the line so incoming images can support the configured operating response.
05 / 05Lifecycle continues
Adapt and repeat
Add or retire defect classes, retrain, redeploy, and move to the next inspection.
Keep the inspection current as products and conditions change, then apply the same plant-owned workflow to another use case.
Platform
View 01 · Training01 / 04
Use cases
The inspections are different. Plant-owned Vision AI is the constant.
Each film connects the physical event on the line to the United Vision session that evaluates it—from waiting for the product through the final operating decision.
Oil-leak detection
Find the fluorescent evidence before the housing moves downstream.
Film paused
- Part enters the ultraviolet inspection cell
- Dual camera feeds evaluate the same region
- Leak evidence triggers a visible fail decision
Inspection libraryChoose your use case
Your IP
Your images. Your inspection intelligence. Your IP.
Plant-floor images and customer-specific inspection work developed with United Vision remain with the customer. BCD iLabs does not use customer IP to train or improve shared, general, or third-party AI models.
Insights
Practical guidance for building plant-owned visual inspection capability.
Operations
Why visual inspection use cases stay on the backlog
Understand the barriers that keep known inspection opportunities from reaching production.Read insight
Economics
One-off projects versus a factory-wide platform
Evaluate the delivery model and economics of the first inspection and the tenth.Read insight
Plant ownership
What self-service Vision AI actually means
See the complete plant-controlled lifecycle from representative examples to production updates.Read insightFAQ
What plant teams ask about AI visual inspection.
Direct answers about manufacturing inspection, self-service, cameras, deployment, factory licensing, and customer ownership.
What is AI visual inspection for manufacturing?
AI visual inspection uses models trained on representative production images to identify defined defects, conditions, objects, measurements, text, or anomalies. It can support manufacturing quality checks where visual conditions vary, while plant teams remain responsible for defining, validating, and acting on the inspection.
What is United Vision?
United Vision is BCD iLabs’ plant-owned Vision AI platform for manufacturing quality inspection. It gives plant teams a repeatable way to capture, train, deploy, update, and expand inspection models.
How is United Vision different from a one-off machine-vision project?
United Vision gives plant teams control of the inspection-model lifecycle and supports unlimited use cases under one factory license. Teams can capture examples, train, deploy, update, and repeat without making every new inspection another United Vision software purchase or specialist-led model project.
What does self-service mean?
Plant teams can control the working model lifecycle largely on their own: capture production examples, define and train the inspection, deploy it to an edge device of your choice, retrain it as conditions change, and repeat the process for additional use cases. Implementation support remains available when needed.
Can United Vision use our cameras and edge devices?
United Vision supports bring-your-own cameras and edge devices where the image quality, interfaces, production conditions, and inspection requirements are appropriate. Each use case is evaluated against the actual environment; compatibility is not universal.
What does one factory, one price mean?
A factory license supports unlimited United Vision use cases within that factory, removing a new United Vision software charge for each additional inspection. Current scope and commercial terms are confirmed for the specific deployment.
Does self-service mean no implementation work?
No. Camera placement, lighting, integration, validation, and operational response still need to fit the use case. Self-service means the plant is not forced to depend on an outside specialist for every model change or new inspection.
What types of inspection can the platform support?
The current capability set includes surface and X-ray inspection, dimensional gauging, OCR and character reading, assembly and presence checks, label and barcode verification, anomaly detection, count and sort workflows, and configured safety monitoring.
Who owns the plant images and inspection work?
The customer does. Plant-floor images and customer-specific inspection work developed with United Vision remain with the customer.
How should a plant begin?
Start with a high-value inspection where the condition, visual evidence, and operating response can be clearly defined. Prove that workflow, then decide where expansion makes sense.
Move one use case forward
Which identified visual inspection opportunity should reach the line next?
Bring us the defect, line condition, available cameras, and operating response that matter. We’ll help map a practical path from known opportunity to working visual inspection.
Start with the use case—not a generic AI presentation.Together, we can examine what has kept it waiting and what implementation requires.