Sick celebrates its 70 years, founded in 1946 by Erwin Sick, ‘passionate inventor’ that combining optic with electronics brought innovation in the sensors technology. Helped by his wife Gisela, still in the company as a honorary member of the executive board, Sick presents in 1951 the first model of light curtain based on autocollimation principle, receiving a certificate for the creative performance and becoming the first patent registered.
In 1956, Sick is granted the second patent for a new type of photoelectric retro-reflective sensor, followed in 1958 by the patent for the first smoke detection device in the world. The company expanded in the ’70s, with several innovations and growing new technologies also with acquisitions of other companies. Today, Sick is a global player with facilities in more than 20 countries, with more than 7.500 employees all over the world and revenues by 1,25 billions of euro in 2015, and is ready to embark on the production of new intelligent sensors for the cyber physical systems of Industry 4.0. Pictured, Giovanni Gatto, managing director Sick Spa during the celebrations in the italian branch.