ibea
ibea is a privately held Hamburg-based engineering firm, founded in 1991, that develops and integrates proprietary AI-driven industrial image-processing inspection systems for quality control in metal packaging, building materials, and beverage/food filling production lines.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1991
- HeadquartersHamburg, Germany
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What ibea does
ibea (Ingenieurbüro für Elektronik und Automation GmbH) is a privately held German engineering firm founded in 1991 and headquartered in Hamburg that develops and integrates industrial image-processing inspection systems for inline quality control. The company serves three primary verticals: metal packaging manufacturers (cans, lids, ends), building materials producers (brick, roof tile, concrete, ceramic), and beverage/food fillers, with an additional special solutions segment covering endless goods, laminates, and injection molding.
Its product portfolio comprises modular inspection platforms such as CUBE (up to 6,000 parts per minute), Deco Twister (360-degree inspection), BT Master (modular brick and tile inspection), LPT (light-leak tester detecting defects below 50 micrometers), Densitop, PVM, HC 3D SCAN, and the recently launched Master Operator Terminal (MOT) for centralized plant monitoring. Approximately 90% of systems are developed in-house using proprietary AI algorithms combined with specialized lighting know-how designed to handle highly reflective surfaces, with the remaining components sourced from external suppliers.
The business operates on a direct enterprise sales model with quote-based pricing on high-ticket capital equipment, complemented by post-sale services including commissioning, training, remote support, repair, and spare parts. Field service engineers are deployed worldwide for installation and commissioning, and the firm has recently added Google Ads as a digital demand-generation channel alongside its direct sales motion. No external funding, M&A activity, or revenue figures are disclosed.
ibea firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ibea
- Legal name
- Ingenieurbüro für Elektronik und Automation GmbH
- Website
- https://ibea.de
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1991
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- ibea is a privately held Hamburg-based engineering firm, founded in 1991, that develops and integrates proprietary AI-driven industrial image-processing inspection systems for quality control in metal packaging, building materials, and beverage/food filling production lines.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
ibea industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Industrial Machine Vision Inspection Systems
- NAICS
- Instruments and Related Products Manufacturing for Measuring, Displaying, and Controlling Industrial Process Variables (334513), Navigational, Measuring, Electromedical, and Control Instruments Manufacturing (33451), Industrial Machinery Manufacturing (3332)
- SIC
- Industrial Instruments For Measurement, Display, And Control (3823), Electrical Industrial Apparatus (3620)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Industrial Vision & Quality Inspection (HDAAAEAG)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Industrial Automation Software (SCADA, HMI, MES, Historian) (IMAHAHAJ)
Keywords
Where ibea is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Hamburg
- HQ country
- Germany
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
ibea business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Inspection Systems Sales: Sale of proprietary inspection systems including CUBE, CS, Deco Twister, CUBE Seam, LPT, PVM, Coating Master, VPMS, Cap Master, Flip Tester, BT Master, HC 3D Scan, and specialized solutions for various industries
- Service and Support: Full-service offerings including advice, commissioning, support, user training, remote support with system optimization, and repair services through RMA process
- Customized Individual Solutions: Special solutions tailored to specific customer requirements including endless goods, laminates, injection molding, and other custom applications
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Custom quotation-based pricing |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels5 records
ibea product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ibea develops, manufactures, and integrates modular industrial image processing inspection systems for 100% quality control of metal packaging (cans, lids), building materials (bricks, tiles, concrete, ceramics), and beverage/food filling lines. Approximately 90% of all systems are developed in-house using proprietary AI algorithms, with systems sold as complete engineered solutions including installation, commissioning, training, and ongoing support worldwide.
Product overview
ibea develops and installs modular inspection systems for quality inspection across three primary markets: metal packaging, construction materials (brick, tile, concrete), and beverage/food filling. The product portfolio includes both high-end integrated systems (CUBE, Deco Twister) and compact basic solutions (CS clever & smart), alongside specialized inspection modules for specific defects (LPT for leaks, PVM for print, COATING MASTER for coating, VPMS for pressure/vacuum testing). For the stone/brick industry, the BT MASTER platform offers configurable modules for optical, 3D, acoustic, and weight/density inspection, with the HC 3D SCAN providing fully AI-based pallet inspection. The Master Operator Terminal (MOT) serves as a central monitoring add-on connecting all ibea Vision systems on a plant floor. The systems are designed modular and future-proof with emphasis on stability, maintenance-free operation, and easy integration into existing production lines, with 90% of all systems developed in-house by ibea.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- CUBE High-end integrated vision inspection system for metal packaging (cans and lids) capable of inspecting up to 6000 parts/min, with multi-snap feature for enhanced defect detection on difficult lacquers and RGBW illumination configurable in any color for adaptation to products, lacquers, or customer requirements.
- CS clever & smart Basic single-line inspection system for cans and lids; a compact optical inspection system inspecting up to 800 parts per minute for diameters up to 190mm and heights up to 300mm.
- Deco Twister All-round 360-degree inspection system for three-piece cans featuring rotation-based imaging at 90-degree angle to the conveyor belt, avoiding image stitching and reflection issues, and enabling rapid new product setup.
- CUBE Seam Can seam inspection system using four synchronized cameras capturing bottom or top seam images, with part rate of 1500 cans per minute.
- LPT (Light Pinhole Tester) Inline leak detection system for deep-drawn cans capable of detecting holes of less than 50 micrometers, with the LPT 7000 module designed for integration into various production lines.
- PVM (Print Vision Master) 100% print image control system for metal panels and endless materials operating at up to 6 m/sec, inspecting color fidelity (R/G/B), contrast, fitting displacements, and detecting missing or wrong decor, stains, scratches, and blur.
- COATING MASTER Inline coating and edge inspection system for metal panels, monitoring edge cleanliness, positions, and sizes, with explosion-proof housing for coating line environments.
- VPMS (Vacuum/Pressure Measurement System) Vacuum and pressure leak test system for multi-part cans or lids, applying positive or negative pressure with dual measurement to detect leaks, supporting cycle rates up to 1600 parts per minute.
- CAP MASTER Offline measuring system for TO caps and PT caps (32-110mm diameter) performing flip test and visual inspection including compound depth, button dip, curl thickness, curl height, lug height, and lug shape measurements at up to 600 caps per hour.
- FLIP TESTER Intuitive table-top device for measuring vacuum values of flip-in and flip-out caps, documenting production quality with database storage and graphical data visualization.
- BT MASTER Modular quality control system for bricks and tiles supporting optical, acoustic, density, and weight measurements with configurable 2D camera, 3D measuring, acoustic crack detection, and weight/density modules.
- BT MASTER SC (Scanning & Sorting) Large-format or tray-conveyed product scanning and sorting system with 5-axis robot sorting, quality classification into voids, corner fractures, dents, contamination, cracks, and other anomaly categories.
- HC 3D SCAN Fully 3D scan system for complete paving pallets enabling wet or dry side inspection, height measurements with edge and midpoint data, statistical overview, and AI-based inspection for fine cracks, broken edges, inclusions, and color faults.
- CSIS (Clay Strands Inspection System) Inline clay strand inspection system using three ultrafast color matrix cameras to detect surface defects and prevent unsatisfactory extruded material from reaching downstream production.
- BBIS (Clay Block Inspection System) Inline clay block inspection using three high-resolution color matrix cameras and two 3D cameras for comprehensive quality checking of block bricks, especially grinding dimensions.
- Densitop All-in-one measuring device for roof tiles combining 3D projection camera and scale for determining density, dimensions (precision +/- 0.2mm), weight (+/- 1g), and surface defect detection with AI-supported measurement.
- BOTTLE MASTER 100% control inspection cabin for beverage and filling lines, performing inside and head inspection with label presence and location verification, and holistic label control for printing errors.
- Master Operator Terminal (MOT) Central monitoring system enabling all ibea Vision systems in the same plant to be monitored at a glance and operated from a central location, displaying relevant statistics on overview screen with user-defined reporting.
Quantifiable outcome
- Multi-snap feature increases detection capabilities for small defects on difficult lacquers by up to 20%
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use ibea
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
ibea technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature8 records
ibea partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators3 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
ibea competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Omron Corporation: Global automation player offering industrial vision systems, code readers, and quality inspection solutions across manufacturing. Serves overlapping application spaces to ibea in packaging and component inspection with broader portfolio scale.
- Cognex Corporation: Global leader in machine vision for industrial automation, offering vision systems, image processing software, and deep-learning tools widely used in factory automation. Directly overlaps ibea's industrial vision inspection category across multiple verticals including metal packaging and manufacturing QA.
- Keyence Corporation: Major Japanese manufacturer of industrial automation and inspection equipment including vision systems, sensors, and microscopes. Keyence serves a similarly broad manufacturing QA footprint as ibea, with comparable optical inspection capabilities and global sales reach.
- SICK AG: Leading German manufacturer of sensors and industrial automation solutions including 2D/3D vision, quality inspection, and identification systems. Overlaps directly with ibea's industrial vision QA offerings and shares a German Mittelstand heritage.
Direct peers
- ISRA VISION (Atlas Copco): Specialist in industrial surface inspection and 3D machine vision for metals, paper, glass, and packaging — acquired by Atlas Copco. Directly competes with ibea in inline surface and quality inspection, particularly for metal and packaging production lines.
- Vitronic GmbH: German-based machine vision specialist with strong presence in industrial quality inspection and logistics. Vitronic is a close peer to ibea as a similarly-sized German Mittelstand vision integrator serving demanding industrial QA use cases.
Regional players
- STEMMER IMAGING AG: European machine vision technology provider and system integrator distributing components and turnkey vision solutions. Comparable as a European vision integrator addressing industrial QA and inspection use cases analogous to ibea's offerings.
Emerging players
- EVK / KPM Analytics (PerkinElmer): Provider of industrial hyperspectral and vision-based quality inspection systems for food, packaging, and material sorting applications. Comparable as a vision QA specialist with overlapping end markets in food/beverage filling and packaging inspection.
- Basler AG: German manufacturer of industrial cameras and embedded vision components widely used in factory automation and QA. Comparable as a German vision hardware supplier, though Basler operates at the component level rather than full system integration like ibea.
- MVTec Software GmbH: Provider of HALCON and MERLIC machine vision software for industrial inspection, robotics, and quality control. Comparable as a German vision specialist enabling industrial QA, and a potential technology peer/partner alongside ibea's proprietary AI stack.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
ibea social profiles
Digital presenceibea financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ibea leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
ibea funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ibea M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ibea
What does ibea do?
ibea develops, manufactures, and integrates modular industrial image processing inspection systems for 100% quality control of metal packaging (cans, lids), building materials (bricks, tiles, concrete, ceramics), and beverage/food filling lines. Approximately 90% of all systems are developed in-house using proprietary AI algorithms, with systems sold as complete engineered solutions including installation, commissioning, training, and ongoing support worldwide.
Is ibea a public or private company?
ibea is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was ibea founded?
ibea was founded in 1991. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is ibea based?
ibea is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, in the Europe region.
How does ibea make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Inspection Systems Sales are the primary driver. The others are service and Support and customized Individual Solutions.
Who are ibea's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Omron Corporation, Cognex Corporation, Keyence Corporation and SICK AG. Direct peers are ISRA VISION (Atlas Copco) and Vitronic GmbH. STEMMER IMAGING AG is listed as a regional player. Emerging players are EVK / KPM Analytics (PerkinElmer), Basler AG and MVTec Software GmbH.
Does ibea have an API?
No public API is recorded for ibea.
What industry is ibea in?
ibea's product category is Industrial Machine Vision Inspection Systems. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAAAEAG, Industrial Vision & Quality Inspection, with a secondary code of IMAHAHAJ, Industrial Automation Software (SCADA, HMI, MES, Historian). Its NAICS code is 334513 and its SIC code is 3823.