Leuze Electronic Sensors

Leuze have been providing innovative and efficient sensor solutions in industrial automation for over 50 years. Offering an extensive line of sensors and corresponding accessories for industrial automation in several different product areas, they are the right partner for everything from simple, standard sensors to innovative, high-tech solutions. Leuze have a product for every application.

Leuze was founded in 1963 in the factory section of the Leuze Textil weaving mill in Owen/Teck, Germany. A staff of six developed the first electronic Leuze sensors, and they were first used for the company’s own textile department. But soon they were also being sold to customers in other industries.

“We have always looked to the future and listened to our customers, their wishes and needs. From the start, this is how we have come up with creative solutions that have made us who we are today. Our goal is to make our customers with their specific application as successful as possible for the long term. Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow,” says company founder Christof Leuze.

Leuze have become known as The Sensor People, due to their international reputation for curiosity, determination, and innovation which leads to pioneering sensor technology. Leuze have been at the forefront of technological milestones in industrial automation for 60 years, holding the success of their customers as their highest aspiration.

A history of innovation

Beginning in the 1960s, the Leuze story has always been one of creative innovation. 60 years ago, mechanical switches were increasingly being replaced by wear-free, contactless reflex sensors. Smaller components enabled miniaturized designs. Leuze developed the RK 06/1, the world’s smallest reflex head, in response to this progression, and as a result became essential in ever widening markets, such as the world of printing.

Continuing their growth into the 1970s, Leuze created extremely robust sensors with metal housing, compact design, and stable mounting technology. They could therefore be utilised in the harshest environments, such as in brickworks or the wood industry.

In the wider world, trailing cables in warehouse logistics were replaced by contactless data transmission for the first time. Once again Leuze was at the forefront of innovation, responding to the challenge by creating the world’s first data transmission photoelectric sensor, the DDLS 78.

In the 1980s Leuze entered the packaging industry and soon also the beverage filling industry with the development of the first retro-reflective photoelectric sensor, the PRK 72, with a contactless reflex head. The industrial experience gained here later resulted in the polarization filter for differentiation between transparent objects. Leuze built on this experience for further applications, such as labelling machines – with the GS 5, Leuze developed the very first label fork for labelling machines. Another important milestone was set with the development of the SLS 89, the first protective sensor for access guarding. This laid the foundation for Leuze to become a safety expert.

In the 1990s, Leuze’s growing expertise in optical sensors combined with their ever-growing experience of various industries to create many new Leuze products. Their common feature is that they were always created with the aim of further automating processes and increasing efficiency, to ensure the success and satisfaction of their clients. Innovations included the concept of a laser scanner that uses the triangulation principle, the world’s first bar code positioning system, the BCL 21, and the smallest industrial bar code reader, the BCL 8. From their expertise in safety, Leuze developed the world’s first protective retro-reflective photoelectric sensor for access guarding, the SRK 96, with only single-sided wiring.

Continuing into the 2000s, Leuze further expanded their safety expertise and developed the first TOF laser scanner RS 4, both as a measuring and a safety variant. Leuze also invented the AS interface and became a founding member of this user organization as well as the IO-Link consortium. One more worldwide innovation in fork sensors followed: the GSU 14 from Leuze was the fastest and most accurate label fork in the world. And it did so using a completely new detection principle: ultrasonics.

From 2010 to the present day, Leuze have continued their proud history of sensor innovation. The BCL 300i set another technological milestone as the first bar code reader without an additional gateway, and the CML 700i as the fastest light curtain in the world.

A further development of the Leuze-RS 4 Safety is the RSL 400 safety laser scanner with maximum range and two independent protective functions: different models are available, including one with PROFINET.

Smart Process Gating is based on our MLC 530 safety light curtains and enables innovative access guarding on conveyor lines without muting sensors. IO-Link and OPC UA have already been used for several years by us. They enable standardized industrial communication.

With the DRT 25C, which is based on Contrast Adaptive Teach CAT, a brand new reference technology, Leuze have created a completely new functional principle for switching sensors.
Leuze, the developer of what was once the first fork sensor for light and later the first ultrasonic fork sensor, combined the two detection principles of light and ultrasound in one compact sensor and developed the GSXU 14E combination fork sensor specifically for labelling machines.

Quality standards

Satisfied customers are the basis of Leuze’s success. Their priority is providing first-class sensor solutions, the high quality of which is ensured through tested and validated processes.

Leuze guarantee adherence to legal and customer specifications and expectations through their company values and compliance with laws, policies and standards. This also includes a commitment to the sustainable protection of the environment through the use of future-oriented technologies and the sparing use of resources.

The Sensor People

Leuze’s high-tech product range includes a number of different sensors for the field of automation technology. Among these are switching and measuring sensors, identification systems, and data transmission and image processing solutions. As safety experts, they are also focused on components, services and solutions for safety at work.

Leuze prides itself on being a globally positioned, family-owned company, creating tomorrow’s innovations together with their customers.