Optical Quality Control Without Compromise:
How nLine Supports G.C.E.’s High-Variety Cable Production.

When it comes to manufacturing special cables, no two production runs are alike.
Each cable type may differ in dimensions, materials, colors, or specific structural features – and each variation brings unique challenges for quality control.
G.C.E. CAVI ELETTRICI S.R.L., an Italian production specialist in high-quality electrical cables for demanding industrial applications, this high product diversity is both a strength and a significant production challenge.

High Variety Requires Flexible Solutions

Traditional inspection processes often struggle with high product variety. Each new product type may require lengthy reconfigurations, fine-tuning of parameters, or even new hardware setups.
For manufacturers like G.C.E., where production lines must rapidly switch between different cable types, every minute spent on reconfiguration or manual adjustments translates into production downtime, higher costs, and potential quality risks.

This is where nLine’s inline optical quality inspection system makes a real difference.

Fast Product Learning for Minimal Downtime

A core advantage of our system is its fast product learning capability. Instead of relying on fixed inspection recipes, the system quickly adapts to new product variants with minimal teaching effort of less than 10 minutes. This means operators can easily teach the system new cable types — even highly specialized ones — without requiring days of setup or programming.

In practice, this allows G.C.E. to:

• Switch rapidly between cable types

• to accelerate the performance of the production

• Maintain consistent inspection quality

• across all variants

• Detect defects early

• and intervene immediately in the production process

Especially in special cable manufacturing, detecting deviations as early as possible is crucial. Small anomalies can have significant impacts on performance, safety, or compliance with strict industry standards. Early detection minimizes scrap and ensures only high-quality products reach the customer.

Reliable Detection of Surface Defects

G.C.E.’s cables often feature complex constructions or fine details, which can be difficult to inspect reliably with conventional systems. nLine’s optical inspection solution leverages high-resolution cameras and powerful AI algorithms to identify even subtle deviations in:

• Surface defects such as scratches, inclusions, dents or bubbles

• Shape anomalies like lumps, knots, constrictions, bulges or unexpected twists in the cable structure

This capability has been a decisive factor for G.C.E.. Even though they already operate advanced laboratory equipment for offline testing, adding our inline system has brought a significant boost in process reliability and speed.

A Strong Partnership

The success of this project was not only about technology but also about collaboration. From the very first tests, the G.C.E. team around Marco Gamberi and Matteo Carenzi was highly engaged and open to innovative solutions. Together, we fine-tuned inspection parameters and seamlessly integrated the system into their production environment.

In the words of G.C.E.:

“With our high product variety, it used to be challenging to reliably inspect all cable types. The nLine quality inspection system now allows us to switch flexibly between different products while ensuring consistently high quality. It saves us time, reduces scrap, and gives us much more process reliability. On top of that, working together was a great experience — the collaboration and customer support have been excellent, and the system performed exactly as we hoped.”

We’re incredibly proud of the trust placed in our technology and grateful for the excellent partnership with G.C.E..