Jenoptik

JENOPTIK Aktiengesellschaft
legal form	Corporation
ISIN	DE000A2NB601
founding	1991
Seat	Jena , Germany
management	Stefan Traeger, CEO of; Hans-Dieter Schumacher; Matthias Wierlacher, Chairman of the Supervisory Board ;
Number of employees	4.043
sales	€ 855 million (2019)
Branch	Optics and electronics
Website	www.jenoptik.de
	As of December 31, 2019

Jenoptik building in Jena-Göschwitz

The Jenoptik corporation is a global, publicly traded technology company headquartered in Jena ( Thuringia ).

Jenoptik is divided into the three photonic divisions Light & Optics, Light & Production and Light & Safety. The mechatronic business has been run under the independent Vincorion brand since 2018. The main customers include companies in the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment industry, the automotive and automotive supplier industries, medical technology, security and defense technology and the aviation industry. In addition to several locations in Germany, Jenoptik is present in around 80 countries.

history

Jenoptik's history goes back to 1846 when Carl Zeiss opened its optical workshop in Jena. Ernst Abbe , who joined the workshop, became the sole owner after the death of Carl Zeiss and founded the Carl Zeiss Foundation Jena, which later became the property of the Carl Zeiss company and the Schott glassworks. In 1948 the Zeiss factory and the Schott glass factory were transferred to public ownership.

In the mid-1950s, Carl Zeiss Jena had the Jenoptik brand entered in the register.

After turning in the GDR which took Treuhandanstalt the Kombinat VEB Carl Zeiss Jena. Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH was initially formed from the Jena parent company , and from September 10, 1990 it operated as Jenoptik Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH. At that time the company consisted of 13 companies and employed around 30,000 people.

On June 25, 1991, an agreement in principle was signed between the Treuhandanstalt, the states of Baden-Württemberg and Thuringia, and the Zeiss companies involved. Lothar Späth , the former Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, took over the management of Jenoptik Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH. In the same year Jenoptik Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH became Jenoptik GmbH as a state-owned company. Jenoptik was responsible for structural development in Jena and became the legal successor to the formerly state- owned combine . From this she took over the business areas of optoelectronics , system technology and precision manufacturing. The areas of Jenoptik Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH not transferred to Jenoptik GmbH were incorporated into the newly formed Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH. 51 percent of the shares in Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH were owned by Carl Zeiss AG in Oberkochen , the 49 percent share of the Free State of Thuringia was managed by Jenoptik GmbH. In 1995 Carl Zeiss Oberkochen also took over the Thuringian share.

In the years that followed, the Jenoptik Group was restructured and made profitable, new companies were acquired and others sold. The largest takeover in 1994 was Meissner + Wurst GmbH Co. KG (now M + W Group ) from Stuttgart, through which some important markets, especially in Asia, were opened up. The company premises in Jena were redesigned, former Zeiss locations were renovated and opened up for new uses.

On May 10, 1995 the company transfers the 49 percent stake in Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH to Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen. On January 1, 1996 Jenoptik is converted into a stock corporation. In the same year, ESW GmbH from Wedel is incorporated (today VINCORION), through which Jenoptik is involved in the production of the Puma infantry fighting vehicle .

The IPO took place on June 16, 1998, the issue price of 34.00 DM was at the upper end of the bookbuilding range of 28.00 DM to 34.00 DM . The company CyBio , formerly Jenoptik Bioinstruments , was established in 1999 as a spin-off founded Jenoptik. In February 2002, Jenoptik Diode Lab GmbH was founded as a wholly owned subsidiary with headquarters in Berlin-Adlershof. The company was established in cooperation with the Ferdinand Braun Institute, Leibniz Institute for High Frequency Technology (FBH) in Berlin, which researches high-performance laser diodes . In 2003 Lothar Späth gave up the chairmanship of the board and switched to the supervisory board.

In May 2005 Jenoptik opened a research center for plastic optics in Triptis , Thuringia. From 2005 Jena-Optronik GmbH, founded in 1991, was wholly owned by Jenoptik. In 2005, the annual general meeting decided to sell the Clean Systems division in order to focus on the more profitable optics business. As a result, the shares in M + W Zander Holding AG (now M + W Group) in Stuttgart were sold to the investment company SpringwaterCapital. The former largest East German group (most recently around 10,000 employees) was radically downsized.

The Free State of Thuringia sold in late November 2007 its remaining 14.8 percent stake of shares to the ECE (European City Estates) Industrial Holdings GmbH (stands behind the Viennese private foundation of the Jenoptik Chairman Rudolf Humer), which thus became the largest single shareholder. This stake was later increased so that since the end of February 2008 25.02 percent of the shares were owned by ECE Industriebeteiligungen.

On December 31, 2007 Jenoptik took over the Berlin-based Epigap Optoelektronik GmbH. In June 2010 Jenoptik sold its 15.1 percent stake in caverion GmbH to the Finnish listed construction and technology group YIT in order to continue to focus on its core business. Jena-Optronik was sold to the EADS subsidiary Astrium at the beginning of October 2010 in order to reduce debt. At the end of June 2011, the major shareholder ECE sold part of its shareholding for 40 million euros to Thüringer Industriebeteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of the foundation for business start-ups and promotions in Thuringia's commercial economy (StUWT). The Thuringian Ministry of Economics is the founder of the StUWT. As a result, the state holds an 11 percent stake in Jenoptik.

On April 1, 2015, the major shareholder ECE announced that it had sold its remaining 10.48 percent stake for more than 70 million euros to institutional investors, mainly from other European countries. The chairman of the supervisory board Rudolf Humer and his son Christian Humer resigned from their supervisory board mandates with effect from June 30, 2015.

From September 10, 2018, Jenoptik presented its competencies in the mechatronic business under the new VINCORION brand. This brand focuses on the aviation, security and defense and rail markets.

Since 2019, Jenoptik has combined the operational business in the three divisions “Light & Optics” (OEM business), “Light & Production” (industrial customer business) and “Light & Safety” (business with public clients). The three divisions build on common core competencies in photonics. This includes know-how about optics, sensors, imaging, robotics, data analysis and human-machine interfaces.

Group structure

Jenoptik AG headquarters building 36 in the center of Jena

Products and services:

"Light & Optics" division

Development and production partner for optical and micro-optical systems, solutions for information and communication technologies as well as security and defense technology. In addition, system and application solutions for the life science industry as well as laser, automotive and lighting applications.

Optomechanical and optoelectronic systems, modules and assemblies
single and multiple coated optical components, aspheres, filters, cylindrical lenses
Diffractive and refractive optical elements, micro-optical systems
Camera systems and components for digital microscopy
Photodiodes, LEDs and color sensors
Semiconductor chips
Optoelectronic high performance components
Polymer optics
Laser technology (laser-specific epitaxial layer structures on wafers , laser diode bars and -einzelemitter, high power diode lasers , solid state lasers such as disk lasers , fiber lasers , pulsed high-power laser systems)
LED industrial lights
Laser sensors / infrared technology for distance measurement and combat simulation

"Light & Production" division

The Light & Production division supports industrial customers in making their production processes more effective and efficient through the use of optical and photonic technologies, and is one of the leading manufacturers of measurement technology and laser systems for manufacturing processes in the automotive industry.

Laser systems :

for cutting, welding and perforating plastics, metals, glass, ceramics and semiconductor materials
for processing - structuring, stripping, separating, drilling and doping - of solar cells
for three-dimensional processing of metals

Industrial metrology:

Measuring devices and measuring machines for roughness measurement
Contour and form measurement, dimensional measurement technology
Optical shaft measurement and surface inspection
Custom solutions

"Light & Safety" division

For public customers, Jenoptik's Light & Safety division develops, produces and sells various components, systems and services that are intended to make roads and municipalities safer around the world.

Systems and components (OEM components, cameras, sensors based on radar and laser, classifiers)
Modular traffic monitoring (red light, speed, vehicle classification)
Service (operator models, outsourcing solutions, consulting)
software

Vincorion

Vincorion acts as an independent brand for the mechatronic business.

Electromechanical systems for aviation (including transport systems, lifts, rescue winches)
Ground-based observation platforms
Military and civil vehicle and aircraft equipment
Optical sensors for the security and space industry
Electrical power generation and distribution systems
Mechatronic stabilization systems

In July 2019 Jenoptik announced that it was aiming to sell the Vincorion division. The aim is to concentrate on the core business with lasers, measurement technology and optical systems. These plans were abandoned in January 2020 because existing takeover bids were too low.

Selected subsidiaries

Jenoptik automation technology

The wholly owned subsidiary of Jenoptik AG, Jenoptik Automatisierungstechnik (JOAT), headquartered in Jena , was founded on July 1, 1995 and manufactures systems for laser material processing as well as handling and assembly systems. The product line of laser systems for industrial series production bears the name "Jenoptik-Votan".

The JOAT subsidiary Jenoptik Laser Technologies was founded in 2001 in Brighton (Michigan) (USA). Like its mother, it has its own laser application center for technology development. In 2002, Jenoptik Katasorb GmbH emerged as a further subsidiary of Jenoptik Automatisierungstechnik GmbH. This company develops and manufactures exhaust air cleaning systems.

Laser systems have been in production since 1996 and are used for cutting, welding and perforating as well as for structuring surfaces. The main customers are companies in the automotive industry , the packaging industry and the glass, ceramic and semiconductor processing industries in Europe, America and Asia.

The company also manufactures automation technology as well as assembly and inspection systems.

Jenoptik laser

The subsidiary Jenoptik Laser GmbH, based in Jena, is part of the Lasers division of the Jenoptik Lasers & Material Processing division. The company develops, manufactures and sells the entire technology chain of OEM laser beam sources such as laser diode wafers, bars, submounts, stacks and high-power diode lasers as well as solid-state lasers worldwide.

Jenoptik has been dealing with diode and solid-state lasers since the 1990s and is growing with the market segment. With the merging of the diode and solid-state laser activities on May 3, 2010, the new company Jenoptik Laser GmbH emerged from Jenoptik Laserdiode GmbH and the laser technology division of Jenoptik Laser, Optik, Systeme GmbH.

The company sees itself as a quality leader in high-power diode lasers and has made efforts to improve the reliability of these lasers significantly. This applies above all to investigations into the causes of failure, improvements in chip or bar assembly and cooling as well as related micro-optical beam guidance systems.

In the field of solid-state lasers, the company is a provider of turnkey diode laser systems, diode-pumped solid-state and fiber lasers for pulse and cw operation, as well as customer-specific OEM solutions in various integration levels. The lasers are used, for example, for welding, cutting and soldering metals and plastics, in medicine and cosmetics ("attaching" the retina, hair removal), and as show lasers .

Jenoptik Diode Lab

Jenoptik Diode Lab GmbH is headquartered in Berlin-Adlershof (formerly AdW site) and belongs to the Lasers division in Jenoptik's Lasers & Material Processing division. The company develops and manufactures semiconductor material for laser diodes.

The company was founded in February 2002 as a spin-off from the Ferdinand Braun Institute for High Frequency Technology (FBH) and is the result of the institute's collaboration with Jenoptik AG on diode lasers. The laser diodes are further developed and specified in cooperation with the FBH before they are then largely assembled, measured and made into laser sources in series at Jenoptik Laser GmbH.

On May 29, 2005, the company opened a factory for the production of semiconductor components after investing 14 million euros. With the acquisition of the Berlin company Three-Five Epitaxial Services Aktiengesellschaft (TESAG AG) and the integration of TESAG into the Jenoptik Diode Lab in 2009, Jenoptik has now also become a wafer manufacturer and thus controls the entire vertical range of manufacture of diode lasers.

In September 2011, the company announced that it would invest around 10 million euros in expanding the production of laser bars in the Berlin-Adlershof Technology Park.

Laser diodes are available in the standard wavelengths 808 nm, 880 nm, 915 nm, 940 nm and 976 nm with an occupancy density (fill factor) of 20, 30 and 50% and optical output powers of up to 130 W in continuous wave operation and 300 W in pulse operation (so-called quasi-continuous-wave operation, i.e. long pulses). The high-performance laser diodes are used to pump solid-state lasers (rod, fiber and disk lasers), fiber-coupled or as direct emitters.

Jenoptik Diode Lab has employees from industrial production and former employees of the FBH.

Jenoptik Industrial Metrology Germany GmbH

Jenoptik Industrial Metrology Germany GmbH, headquartered in Villingen-Schwenningen, is a medium-sized company that operates worldwide and was created through the merger of the Hommelwerke, founded by Hermann Hommel in 1876, and the French-Swiss company Etamic. Jenoptik Industrial Metrology produces tactile, optical, pneumatic and process measurement technology. In 2012, as part of the restructuring of Jenoptik AG, Hommel-Etamic GmbH was transferred to the "Industrial Metrology" division, which in 2013 led to the name being changed to "Jenoptik Industrial Metrology Germany GmbH". The brand name "Hommel-Etamic" was retained, however.

Jenoptik Robot

The Jenoptik Robot is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jenoptik AG in Business traffic safety in 1999.

literature

Philipp Hessinger u. a .: focus and balance. Establishment and growth of industrial networks. Using the example of VW / Zwickau, Jenoptik / Jena and rail vehicle construction / Saxony-Anhalt. Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-531-13517-1 .