Updated July 2026 · 7 min read · Adente Vision Engineering Team
What are the three ways to carry a vision unit?
There are three ways an automation firm can carry an edge-AI inspection unit, and they differ by how much of the cell you touch. You can resell the unit as a box, integrate it into a cell you wire and commission, or embed it as a standard feature inside a machine you build. Each model sets a different margin, a different support burden and a different claim on the end customer.
The right choice follows your firm's shape, not the product. A distributor with reach but no commissioning crew leans to reselling. An integrator who commissions PLCs and robots is built to integrate. A machine builder shipping a repeatable product embeds. A productised unit that trains on 20 good images and speaks five industrial protocols is what makes all three viable, because the deployment effort is small and the connection to a controller is standard. For the underlying few-shot and anomaly method the unit uses, see the pillar guide on AI visual inspection.
Resell vs integrate vs OEM-embed
The three models line up cleanly against the levers that matter to your firm: margin type, how much support you carry, and who owns the account. The table below sets them side by side.
| Model | What you do | Margin and support trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Resell | Move the unit as a box, minimal commissioning | Resale margin, lightest support, weakest account hold |
| Integrate | Wire and commission it into a customer cell | Resale plus integration-labour margin, you own the account |
| OEM-embed | Build it into a machine as a standard feature | Per-machine margin at volume, support tied to your machine |
When does reselling the unit as a box make sense?
Reselling makes sense when you have market reach but not a commissioning crew. You move the unit as a productised box, the customer or their integrator handles the mounting and training, and your margin is the resale spread with the lightest support load of the three models. Because the unit installs in about 30 minutes and trains from 20 good images, a customer can bring it live without you on site.
The trade-off is the weakest hold on the account. When you only pass the box through, service, retraining and the next line are relationships someone else builds. Reselling suits a firm optimising for volume and reach over a deep, recurring customer relationship, or one that wants a low-effort entry into inspection before committing to integration work.
When should you integrate the unit into a cell?
You should integrate when you already commission automation and want to own the whole account. Adente Vision is an edge-AI visual inspection unit built by ADENTE Advanced Engineering Technologies, part of the Aden Group, sold through automation system integrators, and integration is the model it is built for. You wire the unit into the cell, connect pass/fail to the PLC over the protocol it already speaks, and commission it alongside the robot and safety you are already delivering.
Integration carries the resale margin plus your integration-labour margin, and it gives you the strongest claim on the customer. The unit connects over PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP, EtherCAT or OPC UA with 4 inputs and 4 outputs at 24V, so it drops into the controller you are already wiring. Service, retraining and expansion then route to you, which is where a channel-first model pays the integrator back.
When does OEM-embedding into your machine fit?
OEM-embedding fits a machine builder who wants to ship inspection as a standard feature rather than co-develop a vision subsystem per machine. You design the unit into the machine's envelope once and reuse it across every unit you build. The enclosure is 320 x 240 x 180 mm and under 9 kg, it runs on a fanless Jetson-class board, and it takes 90-240 VAC at about 60 W, so it fits inside a machine's power and space budget.
Embedding trades a per-machine margin at volume for a support relationship tied to your machine rather than a standalone cell. The unit triggers off the machine cycle through an encoder, a photoelectric sensor or a fixed interval, returns pass/fail to the machine controller over a standard protocol, and keeps the image on the machine because inference runs on-device. Inspection becomes a feature of your product, and the data stays where your customer's IP belongs.
How do the partner terms adapt to the model you choose?
The partner terms adapt to the model because they are written per firm, not fixed to a tier ladder. Whether you resell, integrate or embed, the commercial arrangement is negotiated as a bespoke agreement scoped to your volume, your industries and your support footprint, in the range the industry treats as normal for a productised hardware channel rather than a public price or percentage. A short partner certification readies your team for whichever model you run.
That flexibility matters because the three models carry very different support loads, and a single fixed margin would misprice at least two of them. A reseller moving volume and an integrator owning deep accounts need different terms, and a bespoke arrangement can match each. To run any of the three models, see how Adente Vision works through its integrator channel, and for the method behind the productised unit, the pillar guide on AI visual inspection.