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History

Tech­no­lo­gy that moves in over three de­cades of wen­glor sen­so­ric group. On this in­ter­ac­tive jour­ney through time, we re­sear­ched deep into wen­glor’s ar­chives and have tra­cked the his­to­ry of the com­pa­ny since the eigh­ties – star­ting in an attic and gro­wing into a glo­bal cor­po­ra­tion.
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  1. 1983

    Die­ter Baur
    Si­mi­lar to Apple foun­der Steve Jobs, vi­sio­na­ry Die­ter Baur tin­kers on his first pro­to­types in his ga­rage. The re­pu­ta­tion for pro­du­cing the fi­nest tech­no­lo­gies spreads fur­ther and fur­ther and the com­pa­ny’s ad­van­ce­ment soon be­comes ap­pa­rent.

    Company founder Dieter Baur

  2. 1985

    Trans­for­ming a Small Bu­si­ness into a Major En­ter­prise
    wen­glor’s first pro­ject is a com­plete suc­cess: The sa­ni­ta­ry sen­sor de­si­gned for DAL brings the first contact­less toi­let flu­shing sys­tem to pu­blic wash­rooms.

    1985 contactless rinsing system

  3. 1987

    wen­glorz Be­comes wen­glor
    With the similar-​sounding name en­ding (“wen­glor” and “sen­sor”), the com­pa­ny creates its own sen­sor ca­te­go­ry and pre­sents it­self with a sty­lish and confi­dent image at IN­TER­KA­MA 87 in Düsseldorf. To this day, the name wen­glor stands for “made in Ger­ma­ny” in­no­va­tion and qua­li­ty.

    Booth

  4. 1988

    World First: Red Light Sen­sor
    HN22 is wen­glor’s first sen­sor with red light and back­ground sup­pres­sion. Spe­cial fea­ture: The vi­sible red light serves as a pre­cise and easy-​to-use ad­just­ment aid. In­ter­fe­rence fac­tors can be re­mo­ved from the scan­ning area for the first time using back­ground sup­pres­sion. Ini­tial­ly ri­di­cu­led by the com­pe­ti­tion, this tech­no­lo­gy is still re­gar­ded as stan­dard by al­most all pro­vi­ders today. 

    Red light button with transparent objects

  5. 1989

    Ex­pan­sion – New Com­pa­ny Buil­ding
    A fire des­troys large parts of the first com­pa­ny head­quar­ters in the dis­trict of Ge­merts­wei­ler in Tett­nang. Des­pite the set­back, the com­pa­ny ope­ned a new com­pa­ny head­quar­ters in the Obe­rhof dis­trict, ge­ne­ra­ting re­cord sales of DM 3 mil­lion with 50 em­ployees.

    First company building in Tettnang

  6. 1991

    Pre­ci­sion Laser Light Bar­rier
    wen­glor ad­ver­tises its new laser light bar­rier with trade ad­ver­ti­se­ments: Ob­jects as fine as a hair can be re­lia­bly de­tec­ted. Pu­bli­ca­tions like these arouse cu­rio­si­ty among the tar­get group, who want to take a clo­ser look – at the Ha­no­ver Fair, which is consi­de­red the main tech­no­lo­gy trade fair.

    Laser light barrier advertising motif

  7. 1994

    Top 100
    Just ten years after the com­pa­ny was foun­ded, the de­mand for skilled wor­kers rose ra­pid­ly and reaches a re­cord of 100 em­ployees in 1994.

    Group photo of 100 employees

  8. 1997

    Smal­lest Sen­sor in the World
    The in­no­va­tive wen­glor K-​type is consi­de­red the smal­lest and most po­wer­ful sen­sor at this time. Due to its small size of 22 x 32 x 12 mm, it is still the best-​selling op­ti­cal sen­sor de­si­gn today. The suc­cess makes waves: The first branch of­fice out­side of Eu­rope is ope­ned in the USA.

    Photoelectronic sensor in K-format

  9. 2002

    Ex­pan­sion to Ro­ma­nia
    In ad­di­tion to the nu­me­rous in­ter­na­tio­nal sub­si­dia­ries, a se­cond pro­duc­tion site is added in 2002: In Sibiu, Ro­ma­nia, not only will nu­me­rous pro­duct groups be pro­du­ced in large quan­ti­ties from now on, but pro­duct concepts will also be made ready for se­ries pro­duc­tion in our own re­search and de­ve­lop­ment de­part­ments.

    Company building in Romania

  10. 2005

    In­dus­trial Image Pro­ces­sing
    wen­glor de­ve­lops a vi­sion sen­sor in which op­tics, ligh­ting and sto­rage media are in­te­gra­ted into a com­pact hou­sing. With this sen­sor, which is consi­de­red the first Smart Ca­me­ra, it is pos­sible to re­cord, di­gi­tize and trans­mit va­rious query cri­te­ria si­mul­ta­neous­ly via stan­dard in­ter­faces. The image re­cor­ding qua­li­ty is used in the pro­duc­tion of vital ve­hicle com­po­nents such as air­bags from lea­ding au­to­mo­tive ma­nu­fac­tu­rers.

    First wenglor vision sensor

  11. 2007

    Com­pe­tence Cen­ter Ger­ma­ny
    A new wa­re­house, lo­gis­tics, trai­ning and pro­duc­tion cen­ter in Tett­nang of­fers an ad­di­tio­nal 4,500 m² of usable space and new pros­pects for the com­pa­ny. The mo­dern com­pa­ny cen­ter not only com­bines ex­per­tise on-​site, but also sets new tech­no­lo­gi­cal stan­dards through geo­ther­mal ener­gy, pho­to­vol­taics and ther­mal in­su­la­tion. 

    Aerial photo of Tettnang location 2007

  12. 2008

    New In­dus­tries, New Mar­kets
    wen­glor de­ve­lops a new V4 stain­less steel pro­duct se­ries for the spe­cial hy­giene re­qui­re­ments of the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, food and be­ve­rage in­dus­tries, which is re­sis­tant to ag­gres­sive che­mi­cals and the use of high-​pressure clea­ners. With a new sales re­cord of 49 mil­lion euros, wen­glor en­ters the im­mi­nent glo­bal eco­no­mic cri­sis stron­ger.

    Hygienically designed sensor in the food industry

  13. 2009

    In­no­va­tion Ins­tead of Cri­sis
    Thanks to high in­vest­ment in re­search and de­ve­lop­ment, wen­glor en­gi­neers suc­ceed in crea­ting a real mas­ter­piece. With wen­glor interference-​free tech­no­lo­gy (win­tec), a pho­toe­lec­tro­nic sen­sor is crea­ted du­ring this time of cri­sis, which will be re­co­gni­zed as a top pro­duct at the Hermes Award in 2011. 

    Photoelectronic sensor with wintec

  14. 2010

    New De­cade: Next Ge­ne­ra­tion
    Fa­bian and Ra­fael Baur take over the ma­na­ge­ment as the se­cond ge­ne­ra­tion. This year, wen­glor achieves a new re­cord sales vo­lume of 53 mil­lion euros with over 500 em­ployees. 

    Fabian Baur and Rafael Baur

  15. 2013

    the in­no­va­tive fa­mi­ly
    wen­glor fo­cuses on the stron­gest brand va­lues and creates a new and dis­tinc­tive image for the com­pa­ny’s 30th an­ni­ver­sa­ry. As part of the chan­geo­ver, Mi­kroe­lek­tro­nik GmbH and its ex­per­tise in the field of 2D/3D sen­sors is in­te­gra­ted into the group of com­pa­nies as wen­glor­MEL.

    Logo from 2013

  16. 2015

    In­no­va­tion World­wide
    The high de­mand for sen­sor and image pro­ces­sing tech­no­lo­gies not only en­sures in­no­va­tive pro­duct so­lu­tions in 2015, but also fur­ther growth in Ger­ma­ny and abroad. With the foun­ding of two sub­si­dia­ries in Ma­lay­sia and Bra­zil, wen­glor is fur­ther ex­pan­ding its in­ter­na­tio­nal bu­si­ness lo­ca­tions – to a total of 23 sub­si­dia­ries and 740 em­ployees in the wen­glor sen­so­ric group.

    Skylines of Malaysia and Brazil

  17. 2016

    In­no­va­tion in 1D, 2D and 3D
    The 2D/3D pro­file sen­sors in­clu­ded in the weCat3D se­ries are ex­pan­ding the range of image pro­ces­sing tech­no­lo­gies to en­com­pass the third di­men­sion. These sen­sors make it pos­sible to de­tect three-​dimensional ob­jects and out­put them using point clouds. Stan­dar­di­zed in­ter­faces en­able the quick trans­fer of di­gi­tal data for sub­sequent vi­sua­li­za­tion and µm-​accurate eva­lua­tion.

    Conveyor belt in the food industry

  18. 2017

    New Pro­duc­tion and De­ve­lop­ment Cen­ter in Sibiu 
    The new pro­duc­tion and pro­duct de­ve­lop­ment cen­ter is ope­ned in Sibiu, Ro­ma­nia, thus ex­pan­ding floor space at our own smart fac­to­ry to 5,000 square me­ters. Thanks to its en­or­mous ca­pa­ci­ty, fully au­to­ma­ted pro­duc­tion lines are able to meet the gro­wing de­mand from the glo­bal au­to­ma­tion in­dus­try for new sen­sor and image pro­ces­sing tech­no­lo­gies. 

    Production and development center in Romania

  19. 2018

    100% wen­glor – 100% Fa­mi­ly Bu­si­ness
    The wen­glor sen­so­ric group is fully family-​owned. After more than 35 years as ma­na­ging di­rec­tor, com­pa­ny foun­der Die­ter Baur has re­ti­red with his wife Bar­ba­ra Baur and has now fully en­trus­ted the ma­na­ge­ment of the com­pa­ny to his sons Fa­bian and Ra­fael.

    Baur family

  20. 2019

    uni­Vi­sion – The All-​in-One Soft­ware
    The soft­ware de­ve­lop­ment di­vi­sion was ex­pan­ded in 2017 with ano­ther sub­si­dia­ry in Sa­ma­ra, Rus­sia, and ex­pan­ded by a soft­ware ex­pert team in Tett­nang in 2019. With the uni­Vi­sion 2.1 re­lease, the wen­glor group in­tro­duces spe­cial­ly de­ve­lo­ped soft­ware for 2D and 3D sen­sors.

    Visualization with uniVision software

  21. 2020

    Strong Part­ner­ship Against Glo­bal War­ming:
    wen­glor is co­ope­ra­ting with CLI­ME­WORKS to help re­duce CO2 in the at­mos­phere. The Swiss start-​up com­pa­ny has de­ve­lo­ped future-​oriented tech­no­lo­gy that re­moves car­bon dioxide from the am­bient air, which is then conver­ted into climate-​neutral sub­stances (such as car­bon). Through this sus­tai­nable part­ner­ship, wen­glor is ac­ti­ve­ly com­mit­ted to com­ba­ting glo­bal war­ming by re­co­ve­ring 15 tonnes of CO2 per year – which cor­res­ponds to ap­prox. 73,500 km in a medium-​class pe­trol ve­hicle.

    Rafael Baur at Climeworks

  22. 2021

    Growth and Ex­pan­sion in Chal­len­ging Times
    The long-​term cor­po­rate stra­te­gy en­sures growth even in times of cri­sis. Not only is the head­quar­ters in Tett­nang being ex­pan­ded to in­clude state-​of-the-art re­search and de­ve­lop­ment buil­dings, but also the lo­ca­tion of the sub­si­dia­ry wen­glor­MEL, which is fa­mous for the pro­duc­tion of 2D/3D sen­sors, in the dis­trict of Unterschleißheim near Mu­nich. A total of 10,500 m² of floor space will be crea­ted on six floors to offer room for fur­ther ty­pi­cal wen­glor in­no­va­tions in the fu­ture.

    Construction projects in Tettnang and Unterschleißheim

  23. 2022

    Ex­cel­lence in Shape
    The new Sha­pe­Drive G4 3D sen­sors stand for ex­cel­lence and pre­ci­sion. They are high-​performance sen­sors in re­so­lu­tion and mea­su­re­ment speed, which cal­cu­late a 3D point cloud in the shor­test pos­sible time. The dif­ferent mea­su­ring vo­lumes en­able the sen­sor to be adap­ted to suit the ap­pli­ca­tion.

  24. 2023

    Stra­te­gic Com­pa­ny Growth: New Ways into the Fu­ture
    The ope­ning of the new wen­glor­MEL re­search and de­ve­lop­ment buil­ding in Unterschleißheim and the ac­qui­si­tion of the Berlin-​based soft­ware de­ve­lo­per dee­vio, which im­presses with its ex­per­tise in the fields of AI and data science, create new op­por­tu­ni­ties for fur­ther wen­glor in­no­va­tions.
    wen­glor is also de­ve­lo­ping fur­ther on a tech­no­lo­gi­cal level: The new P3 sen­sors are par­ti­cu­lar­ly po­wer­ful and com­bine unique Triple A tech­no­lo­gy, high-​precision mea­su­re­ment and blue and red la­sers.

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