Welcome to the 70s!

Let's travel together through the last decades. You will gain insights into important historical events that have had a lasting impact on the world. At the same time, the Sensor People in southern Germany also set major milestones.

Highlights of the 70s worldwide...

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Development of the "PC"

The history of personal computers began in the mid-1970s. Companies like IBM initially saw no need for computers for private individuals. Small garage companies like Apple managed to make the PC accessible to a broader mass due to its ease of use and affordable prices. It quickly became apparent what a huge market this would one day develop into.

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Fashion & Music

Disco music is typical of the seventies. Record companies had recognized the commercial potential, and the danceable music quickly became suitable for the masses. The song "Dancing Queen" by ABBA is known worldwide and is still played today. Fashion was also in keeping with the zeitgeist and lifestyle of the decade: bell-bottoms and miniskirts were at their peak.

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Rocky film series

"Rocky - The Chance of a Lifetime" won three Oscars in 1977: The U.S. boxing film starring Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa became a box-office hit. Eight more "Rocky" films followed.

What happened at Leuze...

 

As sales grow, so does the Owen site

Increasing sales figures led to the expansion of the buildings in the Braike in Owen. In 1972, 79 people were employed at Leuze electronic, which achieved a turnover of 4.9 million euros. The new buildings were the prelude to a steady expansion of production, office and warehouse space in the following decades. Leuze continued to grow both in Germany and internationally.

 

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Today...

The construction project from the recent past is the production center in Malacca, Malaysia, which was opened in 2022. It took just 16 months to build the site, which is primarily used to supply Leuze's Asian customers. Learn more.

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In 2022, around 1600 sensor people worldwide generated sales of 322 million euros. Today, Owen is still the company's headquarters with just under 850 employees.

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There are now 6 production sites and 21 subsidiaries worldwide. You can find an overview of sales and production locations near you here.

 

Insights into production

In 1977, Leuze founded its first subsidiary, Leuze Opto electronic, in Unterstadion, southern Germany. The company began with the production of thick-film hybrid circuits. Right from the start, production in Owen and Unterstadion was rationally set up to enable efficient workflows. At that time, the sensors were mainly assembled by women due to their small size. Production was divided into two main lines: Mechanical housing production and packaging machine construction as well as the assembly of the electronic control cells.

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Today...

The focus of the Unterstadion site, which has been operating under the name Leuze electronic assembly since 2007, is nowadays on the development, production and sales of electronic assemblies and assembled printed circuit boards (PCBAs). 
Learn more about the location here.

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Owen still represents the largest production site worldwide with a manufacturing area of 3,200 square meters. The manufacturing structure is the same at all production sites, and a process-equivalent organization prevails. This means that work islands can be tested in Owen and then set up and commissioned at the new location.

In addition to Germany, our state-of-the-art production is located at sites in China, Malaysia and the USA.

 

Innovative application enables entry into the beverage industry

The "crate full inspection", which was presented at the "Interbrau" trade fair in September 1977, was a door opener for Leuze electronic in the packaging industry. This quick and easy-to-install solution to a widespread challenge conquered the market in the following years. As a result, the beverage filling industry developed into a new, important target group for Leuze electronic. Depending on the set crate format, the KV 09 crate full inspection checks the correct number of bottles in beverage crates using light scanners with V-attachment and double optics (RK 86/2) specially developed for this application and a target/actual comparison.

This monitoring system is still used in the beverage industry today - so it was already a technological milestone back then.

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Today...

One prominent customer example is the Dinkelacker brewery, which uses sensor technology from Leuze in its bottling operations. There are very high requirements here: Due to the frequent cleaning processes in this industry, the sensors must be robust and work reliably. 

Industry Manager for Packaging, Andreas Eberle, explains:
"The retro-reflective sensors with the designation "PRK", which were primarily installed here, are very robust due to their metal housing. The devices can operate reliably in harsh environments, such as those found in the beverage industry. Thanks to the underlying reflection principle, the optical switching sensors also detect highly transparent objects such as bottles."

What's more, the KV 09 crate full inspection system from Leuze is also still in use at the brewery. Read more about the use of the sensors at Dinkelacker in our application report.

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Today, Leuze offers a variety of innovative sensor solutions for a wide range of applications in the packaging industry to make processes more efficient and intelligent. These include sensors for reliable object detection, detection of fill levels in containers, reliable detection of transparent materials in labeling, or detection of marks on films or other packaging.
Learn more about Leuze's expertise in packaging and how we can solve your applications here.