About us Locations Career Contact

Success takes experience. The OptiSense story.

Innovation is our tradition. It's easy to see this by taking a look at the key years in our history. Take a closer look at the company's history via the various dates. Behind the dates, interesting surprises await …

1998

We start as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer-led Optics Centre NRW in Bochum

1999

We develop the first photothermal coating thickness sensor for a robotic industrial application – without any additional cooling

2000

We initiate the „contactless coating thickness measurement” project for Opel in Bochum and crown our success with a process patent

2001

We win Audi, in Ingolstadt, as a pilot customer for our PaintChecker modular sensors and install the first system with two measuring devices on two robots in a separate measuring cell

2001

We develop a contactless measuring system as a prototype for a near-space research project in Norway/Lofoten

2002

Based on a solely thermoelectrically cooled infrared detector we develop a new, photothermal coating thickness sensor

2007

Setting up the first laboratory measuring station in our own company

2008

OptiSense develops an offline measuring system for brake disc coatings

2008

Entry into the Chinese automotive market with the miniaturized PaintChecker Tube sensor

2017

The patented PaintChecker mobile manual sensor goes into series production

2018

The next coup is an industrial controller that measures the coating thickness at up to eight positions simultaneously

2019

OptiSense launches the probably smallest sensor cube in the world

2020

The high-power controller versions are specially developed for extremely thick layers with high glass or ceramic content

Fascinating development: Our latest sensors weigh only 50 grams – a hundredth of the original PaintChecker (left in picture)

Like Walt Disney, Amazon, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Harley-Davidson, OptiSense also started as a garage company.