NewsCausal intelligence cut one manufacturer’s defects by 50%Read the story
Shelfmark
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AI visual inspection and production intelligence for industrial film

Catch film defects like streaks, pinholes, fish-eyes, gels and gauge drift in real time, across the full web. Then pair defect data with IoT sensors to uncover the cause and prevent it from happening again.

What if a bad roll never left your factory again, and your production line got smarter and more efficient with every run? 

CATCHING DEFECTS EARLY MATTERS

The cost of a single missed defect quickly compounds.

What one escape costs
A streak you catch late costs more than the film.
Wasted film
Hundreds of feet run before the roll is pulled
$120
Line downtime
Stopped to rethread and re-web
$400
A downgraded roll
Sold as seconds, or scrapped outright
$900
A rejected shipment
The converter downstream catches it first
$5,000+
WHAT A MISSED STREAK BECAME
$6,420+ & a hold
The converter who got the bad roll now inspects every shipment you send, or quietly moves the program to a supplier they don’t have to double-check.
One escaped web defect, start to finish: your line’s numbers may differ.

Here's what a smarter line looks like.

The film defects we can catch

  • Streaks
  • Pinholes & fish-eyes
  • Gels & contamination
  • Gauge drift
  • Edge defects

The specs

Line speed
1000+ft/min
≈ 305+ m/min
Web width
100+in
full-width, edge to edge
Smallest defect
0.1mm
sub-millimeter
Inspection
100%
every inch of web

We can predict defects before they happen.

Your web defect rate, connected to your facility’s environmental data.

Avg Daily Humidity vs Defect Rate
Humidity (%)Defect rate (%)
304050607080Humidity (%)0246810Defect rate (%)3 Jun4 Jun5 Jun6 Jun7 Jun8 Jun9 Jun10 Jun
Move your cursor across the chart to watch the defect rate follow the 8 Jun humidity spike.
Here’s how it works.

We manage the system that lets your line learn.

Specifically designed for industrial film’s toughest inspection challenges.

01

Camera

The eyes

A vision setup that's flexible, allowing us to tailor to the specifics of your web, your substrate, and your line speed.

02

Hardware

The edge

State-of-the-art NVIDIA compute, on-prem in a rugged box wired straight to your line and the vision system.

03

Software

The platform

A browser-based live dashboard that allows you to view any line from anywhere, generate audit-ready report cards, and visualize predictive data.

04

Machine learning

The intelligence

A menu of large, custom-built models that allow us to find defects without a reference image across hundreds of SKUs.

We don’t sell you a camera and wish you luck. We manage the technology, so you get a smarter line, not more work.

What Shelfmark delivers on a film line

up to
7×
ROI
inside year one
up to
90%
waste reduction
vs. manual review
 
1/2
inspection labor needed
on the line
 
99.5%
inspection accuracy
on any SKU

Manufacturers you know already run it.

Global materials manufacturer
Public · films & labels
Read their story
Specialty film & aerospace-grade coatings manufacturer
Private · 300+ employees
Read their story
Labels & industrial identification manufacturer
Public · 5,000+ employees
On the line
In the platformThe same web inside the Shelfmark platform

How we compare. Shelfmark, traditional machine vision, and manual inspection, on 12 specs.

And why we’re not the same thing.
Feature
Shelfmark
Traditional machine vision systems
Manual inspection
New SKU setup
None: no recipe, no reference image
New recipe + change order
None
Training data labeling
Done by us
Your team
n/a
Model upkeep & drift
Managed by us
Your engineers
n/a
Retraining
Continuous, built in
Scheduled + billed
n/a
Defect record
A digital twin of every roll: image, defect position, and timeA digital twin of every roll
Flags on a screen
The logbook
Root cause & prediction
Linked to line conditions
No
No
Staff to run it
Zero on your payroll
A vision engineer
Inspectors, every shift
Cost model
Operating expense, scoped to your lines
Capital purchase up front
Payroll, forever
Web coverage
100%, edge to edge
Full width
Spot checks
Inspection speed
1000+ ft/min, in line
Full line speed
Slower than the line
Smallest defect
0.1 mm
Varies by recipe
Visible to the eye
Operator alerting
Real time, at the line
Real time
When someone notices
Bottom line
One managed system that gets smarter with every run
A camera that never learns, with the tuning, labeling, and upkeep left on your plate
A person staring at a moving web instead of doing work that needs them

The questions film manufacturers actually ask.

Do we have to write a recipe every time an SKU or defect changes?

No, and that is the core difference. When a new SKU or a new defect appears, retraining the model is our job, not a change order you write and pay for. You are never locked into editing recipes to keep inspection working.

Do you tell us where the defects are on the roll?

Yes. You get a defect map of the whole roll, every flaw located by position, so you know exactly where to cut around it for slitting, laminating, or other downstream value-add, instead of scrapping good web with bad.

Can Shelfmark run alongside or replace our current web inspection?

Either. We can augment a system you already run or replace it. Because we mount our own cameras and run our own models, we are not dependent on your current vendor’s software or recipes.

Is this a capital purchase or a service?

A service. Instead of a large machine-vision system bought up front, you pay as an operating expense scoped to your lines, and tuning and upkeep are included, not billed per change.

What about false alarms and nuisance defects?

Deep-learning models are tuned to your real defects, not fixed thresholds, so the system learns the difference between a defect that matters and harmless web variation, and we keep tuning it as your product mix changes.

Will it keep up with our line speed and web width?

Yes. We inspect at production speed across the full web, past 1,000 ft/min on webs over 100 in, and the cameras and models scale with the line. Inspection never becomes the bottleneck.

Do we own our inspection data?

Yes. Every roll stays on the record and is yours, queryable across lines and plants, exportable any time. The platform is the single source of truth for your quality data, not a black box.

What defects can Shelfmark catch on a web line?

Streaks, pinholes, fish-eyes, gels and contamination, gauge and coating drift, and edge defects. Down to roughly 0.1 mm, across the full web width, every inch inspected in line.

What happens the moment a defect is found?

The floor is alerted immediately: an alarm at the line and the defect image on screen, tagged to the exact position on the roll. Your operator decides what to do; nothing ships with a defect nobody saw.

How long does install take, and does the line stop?

A single line is typically instrumented and inspecting within days, not months. We mount cameras over the web, calibrate to your speed and width, and tune against your real defects. No teardown, and you never write a rule.

Talk to a
Shelfmark expert.

See if it’s a fit.
In 30 minutes you’ll know whether we can catch your defects, on your substrate, and your line speed.
See what’s possible.
We can show you the real thing. A line with every defect caught automatically; fewer escapes, less rework, and capacity you didn’t know you had.
See if we are full of shit.
We are a young company doing things that have never been done before. We own that, and we will answer any questions you have.