Sick AG (or SICK, as spelled by the company), based in

Waldkirch Waldkirch is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, located 15 kilometers northeast of Freiburg im Breisgau. While the English translation of its name is ''Forest Church'', it is known as the "town of mechanical organs", where fairground organs ...

(Breisgau),

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, is a global manufacturer of

sensors A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...

and sensor solutions for industrial applications. The company is active in the areas of

factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

and

logistics automation Logistics automation is the application of computer software or automated machinery to improve the efficiency of logistics operations. Typically this refers to operations within a warehouse or distribution center, with broader tasks undertaken ...

and

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...

automation. The company employs around 10,344 employees worldwide and achieved sales of EUR 1,7 billion in 2020. The company is particularly well known for its

laser scanner Laser scanning is the controlled Deflection (physics), deflection of laser beams, visible or invisible. Scanned laser beams are used in some 3-D printers, in rapid prototyping, in machines for material processing, in laser engraving machines, i ...

s, which are used as sensors in the fields of facility protection (security), ports and robotics. Five

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

s produced by the Sick AG were used for short-range detection on

Stanley Stanley may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film * ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy * ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short * ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...

, the

autonomous car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car, driver-less car, or robotic car (robo-car), is a car that is capable of traveling without human input.Xie, S.; Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Ding, Z.; Arvin, F.,Distributed Motion Planning for S ...

that won the 2005

DARPA Grand Challenge The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for American autonomous vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense. Congress has authorize ...

; they can be seen on the roof of the vehicle. SICK/IBEO LIDARs were also used for obstacle avoidance, mapping and pedestrian tracking on WAMbot, the autonomous vehicle that came 4th in the MAGIC 2010 competition. SICK AG has ranked among Germany's best employers for several years.

History

SICK AG was founded in 1946 by

Erwin Sick Erwin Sick (3 November 1909 in Heilbronn – 3 December 1988) was a German inventor and entrepreneur. Life and career 1924 Erwin Sick began his professional career with an apprenticeship in optometry and then attended the College of Optics and ...

(1909–1988); he had received a license from the then US-managed local government to operate his engineering firm. The economic breakthrough came in 1952 with the volume production of the accident-prevention light curtain, presented at the International Machine-Tool Trade Fair in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. In 1956, the company moved from

Vaterstetten Vaterstetten is a municipality in the Upper Bavarian district of Ebersberg. It lies east of Munich and is the district's biggest community. Vaterstetten is on the outskirts of Munich, roughly twenty minutes by S-Bahn from Marienplatz. Geography ...

(Breisgau). SICK AG has a global presence with almost 50 subsidiaries and participations as well as numerous sales agencies. According to the company’s own statements, it invests about 11,8% of its sales revenue in research and development each year.

Products

The company’s product portfolio includes photoelectric sensors, light grids, inductive, capacitive and magnetic sensors, opto-electronic protective devices, vision sensors, detection, ranging and identification solutions such as bar code scanners and

RFID Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...

readers, analyzers for gas and liquid analysis as well as gas flow measuring devices.

References

{{Authority control Companies based in Baden-Württemberg Manufacturing companies of Germany Electronics companies established in 1946 1946 establishments in Germany