Eigen Innovations Alternatives: Seal Checks, Leak Tests or OEE Cameras

A ready meal line seals 50 trays a minute. A thermal camera after the sealer flags a weak corner and the tray is rejected. Yet at the end of the shift the line is more than 4,000 trays short of what it could have made, and most of those trays were never sealed at all: the line stopped for a changeover, three film reel changes and jams at the denester, and ran below its ideal speed in between.

Below: what Eigen Innovations (eigen.io) sells according to its own site, where it fits, and four alternatives sorted by the check they make. Fabrico wrote this page and appears in it as one option, so hold our claims to the same test as the others'. For inspection software in general, see our visual quality control software guide.

What Eigen Innovations sells (as of 11.11.2026, per its site)

Eigen Innovations is based in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, per its contact page. Its homepage names two uses for AI thermal vision: quality inspection, for defects such as voids, adhesion issues and material inconsistencies, and condition monitoring of equipment and process temperatures.

• Hardware. Thermal, 2D and 3D cameras, operator HMIs and edge computers (hardware page). The OneView Edge Pro 802 takes up to four cameras; the compact Core 2302 takes up to two and has a built-in touchscreen. Both list FLIR and Optris thermal cameras and GenICam colour and mono cameras, and talk OPC UA, Modbus and EtherNet/IP (OneView Edge).
• OneView Cloud. Takes images from existing or new sensors, builds anomaly reports and trains AI models. With edge devices, the page adds remote deployment of inspection algorithms, PLC integration, automated reports and searchable product records (OneView).
• Package sealing. Thermal cameras inspect each seal right after sealing, while the heat contrast is still there, for wrinkled film, particulates in the seal, under or overheated seals and folded film. On a defect the system alerts operators and can reject the pack or stop the line, and each result is kept as a digital record (package sealing).
• Product temperature and bakery. A pre-packing check that products have cooled enough (temperature monitoring). On bakery lines a bottom camera looks at the underside, where moisture shows first, and each SKU has its own thresholds, picked on the HMI at changeover (bakery). Other pages cover bread, crackers, cooked potato products, and oven or freezer lines for products such as nuggets and patties (oven and freezer lines).
• Glue on boxes. Thermal checks of hot melt glue in cardboard box sealing, for gaps, excess glue and glue temperature (hot melt paste sealing).

Ask in the demo: how a new film colour or tray format is set up, and how seal rejects reach the line PLC and the system that calculates OEE.

When Eigen Innovations fits

Fits plants that want every pack or product checked by its heat pattern at one point on the line: seals, glue beads, or product temperature after an oven, cooler or freezer, with thresholds per SKU and records across lines in one cloud platform, per its bakery page.

Heat, light, gas or time: four ways to watch a packing line

Comparison table: Eigen Innovations and four alternatives

Cells come from each vendor's own pages, as of 11.11.2026, linked in its section below.

Listed in no order of merit; Fabrico is first because we wrote the page.

Want to see what stops cost a packing line next to what its checks reject? Book a demo and bring one shift's reject log.

Fabrico: line OEE, with a camera add-on where no signal counts

Fabrico wrote this page. It runs OEE and light MES in the cloud. The other four vendors' pages describe checks on the pack, the product or the process; Fabrico measures the line around them: run time, stops, speed and good output, shift by shift.

What it does today, per our OEE and MES overview and camera add-on page:

• Machine signal first. Stops and counts come from a PLC, a sensor or a counter on the line. The operator picks the stop reason on a tablet or phone at the line.
• Losses in money. OEE, downtime and losses shown in money per line and shift, in a web app and on iOS and Android.
• AI camera add-on, on request: counts output where no machine gives a usable signal, such as a hand-pack table or manual case packing. With the add-on, any moment on the shift timeline opens the camera video; in the standard setup that video is streamed on request, not stored in Fabrico.
• Open data. REST API, webhooks, and Excel or CSV export.
• On the roadmap, not live: camera add-on features that mark jam zones, pick up stops by themselves or propose a stop reason for the operator to confirm.
• Not Fabrico: seal, leak, glue or product temperature inspection.

A seal or leak check reaches Fabrico as a reject count or signal on the line, which feeds the quality part of OEE. Our tray sealer OEE guide shows which losses to track on that machine.

Ask in the demo: which reject signal on a tray line should feed the quality figure, and how close a camera add-on count gets to a hand count at a manual station.

Fits plants that want stops and output tracked per line and shift where PLC machines, older equipment and hand stations share one line; what to compare between OEE tools is in our OEE software guide.

MoviTHERM: TSI thermal seal inspection

MoviTHERM, a thermal imaging company in Irvine, California, says it has engineered and supported its products there since 1999. Its thermal seal inspection page describes the TSI system for packaging. As of 11.11.2026, the page says:

• Thermal cameras scan each package in real time across the full seal area. Listed faults include incomplete seals, seal contamination, improper adhesion, misalignment, cracks and irregular seal shape or width.
• Its defect list also covers bottle caps: inconsistent cap torque, and a missing cap or seal foil.
• It has a standard EtherNet/IP interface and digital I/O for alerts and rejection, with optional FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance for electronic records.
• It ships with thermal cameras on power over Ethernet, a controller, a touchscreen panel PC and the software, after an evaluation on your samples.

Compared with Eigen: both read the heat of a seal right after it forms. Ask each how a new pack format is set up, where results are stored, and who commissions the system and trains your team.

Ask in the demo: what a rejected seal looks like on your film, and how pass or fail results reach the PLC.

Fits plants that want a thermal seal check on heat-sealed packs or bottle caps, with EtherNet/IP and optional Part 11 records, per the TSI page.

Valco Melton: PouchChek for heat seals, ClearVision for glue

Valco Melton, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and part of Graco, sells glue dispensing equipment and quality assurance systems, per its vision and quality assurance page. As of 11.11.2026, its pages say:

• PouchChek is a vision inspection system for heat-sealed packaging. It captures thermal and visible images at the same time and overlays them on a 22 inch monitor (PouchChek).
• PouchChek lists misalignment, improper heat zones, debris contamination, excess heat, zipper crunch damage and missing seals. Faulty packs can be marked or ejected, and all images are stored for quality and process records.
• ClearVision camera systems include glue line inspection, gap and skew detection and print inspection for corrugated boxes, folding cartons and packaging (ClearVision).
• Its quality assurance systems verify glue patterns by volume and placement, among other checks.

Compared with Eigen: both check heat seals with a thermal camera, and both check glue on boxes.

Ask in the demo: which PouchChek or ClearVision setup fits your pack, and how rejects are logged per job.

Fits plants that run pouches or cartons and want seal or glue checks from the supplier of their gluing equipment, per its PouchChek page.

Ishida: AirScan leak detection for MAP packs

Ishida Europe has its registered office in Birmingham, UK, and its range includes weighers, inspection systems and tray sealers such as the QX-800. Its AirScan page, as of 11.11.2026, says:

• AirScan uses a laser detection unit tuned to the CO2 molecule. CO2 escaping from a leaking pack triggers an alarm and the pack is rejected.
• It checks up to 160 packs per minute, finds leaks from holes as small as 0.5 mm, and works on packs with CO2 content as low as 10%.
• The page lists ready meals, dairy, fresh produce, frozen foods, bakery, meat, fish and fresh pasta.

Compared with Eigen: different physics. Eigen reads the heat pattern of a seal just after sealing; AirScan checks whether modified atmosphere gas escapes from the finished pack.

Ask in the demo: how your tray or bag format runs through it.

Fits plants that pack in modified atmosphere and want an in-line leak check on every pack, per the AirScan page.

Where each check sits on a food packing line

Start from the station where the fault starts, not from the vendor. On a typical tray or bag line the checks on this page sit at five stations, and OEE covers the time and output around all of them. Our pages for bakeries and ready meal production go deeper on those lines, case sealer OEE covers the glue station, and the FMCG hub covers the rest of FMCG.

Worked example: when do the seal rejects happen?

The numbers below are invented for illustration, not taken from a customer or a product screen. Picture a ready meal tray line on an 8 hour shift: 480 planned minutes at an ideal 50 trays a minute, or 24,000 possible trays.

Stops took 50 minutes: a 25 minute changeover at the start, three film reel changes of 5 minutes each, and 10 minutes of jams at the denester. Availability is 430 of 480 minutes, or 89.6%.

At ideal speed, 430 running minutes would give 21,500 trays. The sealer's counter shows 19,780, which puts performance at 92.0%.

The thermal seal check rejected 395 trays, leaving 19,385 good, so quality is 98.0%. OEE is 89.6% x 92.0% x 98.0% = 80.8%, the same as 19,385 good of 24,000 possible.

In this sample, 230 of the 395 rejects came in the three hours with a film reel change. The seal check tells you which trays failed; the shift timeline tells you what the line was doing at the time. Together they point at the seal in the minutes after a reel change.

Check any count, from the camera add-on or a sensor, against a hand count for one shift first; our page on camera OEE accuracy shows how.

Questions for every vendor, us included

Use one real line and the same list with each of them.

• Which fault, at which station? Seal, leak, glue, product temperature, or line time.
• New SKU or new film? Ask who sets the reject threshold and how long the line stands still meanwhile.
• Where does a reject go? A signal to the line, a count to the system that calculates OEE, an image to quality.
• How does it fit your food safety plan? Do results guide or replace today's seal tests and probe checks, and who signs that off?
• Who sees the images? Thermal cameras over packs rarely see people; cameras at manual stations can, so agree the setup with the works council first. Our no-surveillance guide covers it.

See also our camera add-on pilot plan, label and code vision vs the camera add-on for print checks, and Elementary alternatives for AI inspection.

What people ask next

Is Eigen Innovations OEE software?

Eigen describes its products as AI thermal quality inspection and condition monitoring, per its site, and links condition monitoring to less unplanned downtime. For OEE by line and shift with stop reasons, ask Eigen which line data OneView reports and how it can be exported.

Does a thermal check replace probe checks?

Eigen's own bread and cooked potato pages describe thermal screening as guiding and complementing validated probe checks, within your food safety procedures. Ask any vendor how its results fit your HACCP plan before you change a test routine.

Can Eigen use thermal cameras we already own?

Its OneView Edge page lists FLIR and Optris thermal cameras and GenICam colour and mono cameras, and its OneView page says it takes images from existing or new sensors. Check your exact models with Eigen.

How is Fabrico different from Eigen Innovations?

Eigen sells AI thermal inspection and condition monitoring, per its site. Fabrico measures the line: stops and counts from the machine signal, stop reasons from the operator, and OEE and losses in money by line and shift, with an AI camera add-on that counts output where no signal can. Fabrico does not inspect seals, leaks or glue.

Where does a thermal seal check sit on the line?

Eigen's package sealing page puts it right after the sealer, while thermal contrast is still present. Ishida's AirScan checks the finished MAP pack for escaping CO2. Ask each vendor where its system goes on your layout.

Want to measure stops and good output on a packing line like yours? Book a demo.