Updated July 2026 · 8 min read · Adente Vision Engineering Team
Why does a vision line item stall an automation quote?
An inspection line item stalls a quote when it is open-ended. A robot, a PLC panel or a conveyor has a known bill of materials and a predictable commissioning effort, so it prices cleanly. A custom vision rig usually does not: the camera, lighting, optics and software get scoped per part, which turns one line into an engineering estimate the buyer cannot check and you cannot commit to.
The fix is to spec inspection the way you spec the rest of the cell, as concrete line items with values attached. 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 it is built to drop into a tender as a fixed block rather than an open estimate. Because the camera, lighting, edge compute and AI model ship in one enclosure, the quote stops being a research project and becomes a part number with a spec sheet behind it.
What are the fixed line items in an inspection cell?
An inspection cell breaks into six line items you can price like any other cell component: the inspection unit itself, lighting, mounting hardware, I/O wiring, triggering, and commissioning hours. When the unit is a single enclosure that already holds the camera, optics, lighting and compute, most of those lines shrink to hardware and labour you can estimate, not vision engineering you have to discover first.
| Quote line item | What it covers | Spec value to anchor on |
|---|---|---|
| Inspection unit | Camera, lens, lighting, edge compute and AI in one enclosure | 320 x 240 x 180 mm, under 9 kg, one AV part number |
| Lighting | Configurable colour and angle, integrated in the unit | Diffuse, directional or coaxial, 24V, no separate controller |
| Mounting | Bracket to hold the unit over the part | One-person mount because the unit is under 9 kg |
| I/O wiring | Discrete signals to and from the cell | 4 inputs, 4 outputs, 24V |
| Triggering | Locking capture to the part, not a timer | Encoder pulse, photoelectric sensor or fixed interval |
| Commissioning | Mount, aim, configure, wire and validate | About 30 minutes to first inspected part; validation hours per application |
Power is the line that usually disappears from the schedule. The unit runs on 90-240 VAC at about 60 W typical, so it takes an ordinary mains drop rather than a dedicated supply, and you can note it as a single socket on the electrical drawing.
Which protocol and I/O facts belong in the tender?
Put the integration facts in the tender verbatim, because they are what an automation engineer checks first. The unit speaks five industrial protocols, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP, EtherCAT and OPC UA, so it matches whatever the cell's PLC already runs. For discrete signalling it has four inputs and four outputs at 24V: enough to take a trigger and an interlock in, and send pass, fail and a reject pulse out.
Capture is locked to the part by an encoder pulse, a photoelectric sensor or a fixed interval, so a result maps cleanly to a specific part on the conveyor. State in the quote that a recognition or pass/fail result reaches the PLC either on the fieldbus or on the discrete outputs, and let the cell design decide which. For the standards behind those protocol names, the PROFINET and ODVA / EtherNet/IP organisations publish the specifications you can reference rather than paraphrase.
How do you choose the AV variant for the environment?
Choose the variant by the environment the enclosure sits in, not by the inspection task, because the optics, edge compute and AI modes are identical across the range. Only the enclosure changes, which keeps the spec decision to one question: what does the box have to survive.
- AV-S100, IP54, 0-45 C: standard dry assembly, machining and packaging cells.
- AV-W100, IP65, 0-45 C: washdown lines in food, beverage and pharmaceutical plants.
- AV-H100, IP54, 0-65 C: high ambient temperature near foundries, glass works and hot stamping.
- AV-X100, IP66, 0-45 C: hazardous atmospheres in chemical and petrochemical plants (confirm the ATEX or IECEx certification against the current datasheet before you quote it; do not cite a certificate number you have not checked).
Declared standards are CE, IP54 and IEC. For what an IP rating actually protects against, cite IEC 60529 in the tender rather than asserting a claim, so the buyer can verify IP54, IP65 or IP66 independently.
What still needs an application-specific measurement?
One number should never be pasted as a guarantee: the per-part cycle time on your parts. The measured field result is about 30 ms per part on a delivered line, and the catalog bound is 0.5 s per part at 100+ parts per minute. Treat those as the envelope, not the commitment.
The figure you put in a firm quote should come from an application-specific measurement on the real parts, lighting and cycle, so put a short feasibility check ahead of the number rather than promising a throughput you have not seen. Commissioning past the roughly 30-minute mechanical install, meaning the validation and sign-off hours, scales with the number of variants and the acceptance criteria, so size it as a labour line for the project rather than a fixed figure. This is where a pilot pays for itself: about 20 good reference images and model training under 48 hours turn "we think it will work" into a measured result you can quote against.
A reusable spec paragraph you can paste into a tender
Keep a paste-ready block so inspection reads like every other priced line, not an open estimate. Adjust the variant and protocol to the cell.
"Edge-AI inspection unit: camera, lighting, optics, edge compute and AI model in one enclosure, 320 x 240 x 180 mm, under 9 kg. Powered from 90-240 VAC, about 60 W typical. Four inputs and four outputs at 24V; PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, Modbus TCP, EtherCAT or OPC UA. Triggered by encoder, photoelectric sensor or fixed interval. Enclosure rated for the cell environment (IP54 to IP66 across the AV range). Output: pass, fail and variant class to the cell controller on the edge, with per-part cycle time confirmed by an application-specific measurement during commissioning."
For the method behind training on about 20 good parts, see the pillar guide on AI visual inspection; for the full hardware spec to attach to the tender, see the system page; and for putting inspection on your line sheet without a new hire, see the sibling post on adding vision without a vision engineer.