Congratulations on 60 years of Leuze! Looking back: What was the most significant technological development of your company?

If you want to be successful in the long term, there is no such thing as ONE most significant development. You have to keep innovating at regular intervals, keep up with the times and sometimes be a bit ahead of them. In the start-up phase of Leuze electronic, the 'RK03', the smallest diffuse reflection sensor in the world at the time, played a central role. It opened the door to the production of a series machine manufacturer and brought the first large, recurring quantities. However, the first barcode reader in the early 1980s - a few years after the barcode had even been introduced in Germany - and the development of the world's first safety laser scanner also played an important role in Leuze's current positioning. This first security laser scanner was not really 'secure' in today's sense because there was no standard for it at the time. This only developed in parallel to the product together with the BIA. Today, a safety laser scanner can be found on almost every automated guided vehicle system (AGV).

Leuze supplies over 1 million optical sensors from the '5/5B' series every year.

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What does the roadmap look like for the next ten to 15 years?

Given the speed at which technology develops, it is practically impossible to predict what will be on our roadmap in ten or 15 years' time. What is certain, however, is that we will continue to develop our core portfolio in the field of optical sensor technology - including switching and measuring sensors, as well as our barcode readers and sensors for occupational safety - and adapt it to the needs of our customers. After all, the long-term success of our customers is our motivation and ultimate goal.

What technological trends do you see that are or will be important for Leuze?

The technological changes that are just around the corner are security issues, i.e. data-secure networks in the industrial environment. There is still a lot to do in this context. As sensor technology experts, however, we will certainly not take on a leading role here. But we will serve the needs of our customers in the same way as we have done over the last ten years in the context of the network connection of our sensor technology. The increasing use of neural networks and artificial intelligence in sensor technology is also very likely. AI is already almost standard in the field of imaging sensor technology, and we are also looking into this technology. The use of AI to process signals in non-imaging optical sensor technology is very likely only a matter of time.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge in the next few years, commercially and/or technically?

The industrial sensor market is a dynamic and growing one. The biggest challenge has been and will continue to be keeping pace with this dynamic, anticipating changing market needs and consistently developing products in line with these needs. In addition, global political developments and international interdependencies will certainly have an impact on industrial automation. However, the extent to which these influences will have an impact is not yet really foreseeable. The global shortage of materials over the past year and a half has given us a feeling for the extent of international interdependencies.