Moon landing
„That´s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.“ History was made with this sentence on July 20, 1969: Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon. This event was watched in front of the television by 500 million people.
The Beatles
The Beatles' career began in the 1960s with the single "Love Me Do" from 1962. Just one year later, they achieved a worldwide breakthrough with their single "I want to hold your hand". The success continued, and they reached the top of the charts in almost all countries at times in the following years.
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is considered the most famous sports car of the German car manufacturer. It has its origins in the early 60s. In 1963, Porsche exhibited the new sports car with a 6-cylinder boxer engine in the rear at the IAA motor show in Frankfurt.
Of toasters and technology - how it all began
In 1961, the Leuze cotton spinning and weaving mill celebrated its 100th anniversary. Nevertheless, it became apparent that the market pressure in the textile industry was becoming increasingly strong. The search for new opportunities in other industries began. The young fourth generation focused on diversification. In 1963, the electronics division of the Leuze Group, Leuze electronic, was launched. Involved from the beginning: Christof Leuze, his former schoolmate and electrical engineer for photoelectric sensors Günther Stiefelmeyer, design engineer Albert Löffel and four existing employees of Leuze textil. Their goal was to manufacture electronic optosensors.
Creativity and inventiveness were needed to implement the new business idea. First businesses emerged with gang controls for bowling alley builders and radio controls for garage doors. One notable attempt was the development of an automatic control for Rowenta toasters to prevent burnt toast. The experiment failed, but the young developers did not give up - always with the goal of solving problems for various applications and generating initial sales as quickly as possible.
"We were adaptable, hungry and fast" - says Christof Leuze, shareholder and former commercial director of Leuze electronic.
From small town to the world
The focus has always been on solving problems and optimizing applications for our customers. But how did we manage to convince the first major customer of our products?
In 1965, when everyone in Owen was celebrating on the day of the annual children's festival, May Day, the electrical designer in charge of a well-known printing press manufacturer called excitedly: a new printing press was to be transported to a foreign trade show the next day. But the competing equipment used did not work.
The two engineers Günther Stiefelmeyer and Günther Schumm set off immediately. Once they arrived at the customer's site, they spent the night under the machine - until the sheet inspection system was working properly.
The next morning, the press set off on its journey to the trade show in Paris. The proof was in, the breakthrough finally achieved: through their efforts, we won our first major series customer.
To this day, nothing has changed: Our motivation as Sensor People is the lasting success of our customers. To achieve this, our sensor experts are at work all over the world - with more than 20 of their own sales companies and over 40 international partners and distributors.
The first major milestone
From customer-specific problem solutions in the printing machine sector, a first small photoelectric sensor program gradually developed. We also succeeded in gaining a foothold in the graphics sector.
In 1966, just three years after the start of Leuze electronic, we already achieved our first million in sales. This milestone was, of course, duly celebrated!
