Jenoptik Robot
| Jenoptik Robot GmbH
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1933 |
| Seat | Monheim am Rhein , Germany |
| management | Managing Directors: Michael Wendlik, Thomas Pehl |
| Number of employees | 300 |
| Website | www.jenoptik.com/products/traffic-safety-systems |
The Jenoptik Robot GmbH (proper spelling JENOPTIK Robot GmbH ) is the most important manufacturer of equipment for traffic control in Germany. The company is based in Monheim am Rhein and is part of the Jenoptik Group, Traffic Safety Division.
Activity of the company
Jenoptik Robot GmbH manufactures systems for red light , speed and toll monitoring ("speed cameras"). In the area of services, the Jenoptik division covers the entire accompanying process chain - from system development, the construction and installation of the monitoring infrastructure, the recording of infringement images, their automatic further processing to the dispatch of the fines and their collection as the operator of the systems. Jenoptik Robot GmbH (formerly ROBOT Visual Systems GmbH) has been a 100 percent subsidiary of Jenoptik AG since 1999.
history
The company was founded in the 1930s by Hans Heinrich Berning as Otto Berning & Co. and manufactured 35 mm cameras , the so-called robot cameras.
Heinz Kilfitt (* 1898 in Höntrop ), son of a watchmaker, was employed by the Rudolf Neumann Optical Institute in Berlin in 1925 , was promoted to head of the photography department and had the idea of a 35mm camera for taking series of pictures with a clockwork drive. After 5 years of development work, he completed the prototype in 1931, based on the 24 × 24 mm recording format, with a spring mechanism for film transport and shutter release. In 1932 he received a patent for the entire camera construction. 3 to 4 pictures per second could be taken and up to 54 pictures on the standard 170 cm long 35mm film (for 36 pictures 24 × 36 mm). A separate daylight cartridge made it possible to remove partially exposed film. The idea for the spring mechanism motor (also) came from Hans Heinrich Berning (HHB) (* around the beginning of 1909, secondary school leaving certificate August 20, 1924, followed by internships). His father Otto Berning, a clothing manufacturer, assessed the camera’s business opportunity as positive. The Otto Berning & Co company in Schwelm was founded with a 40% participation by Kilfitt and with HHB as the young managing director .
With start-up capital from father Otto Berning and the help of his uncle Hermann Berning, owner of the GEOS company in Mettmann, HHB set up a design office with Kilfitt and the mechanic Franz Hörth in Düsseldorf in the Scheibengasse. Here the Robot I was developed from the prototype to series production. As co-developer and supplier of essential parts, the following were won:
- At WMF in Geislingen an der Steige , stainless V2A steel was found through tests , with which the housing could be deep-drawn and polished.
- The movement manufacturer Baeuerle & Sons in St. Georgen in the Black Forest produced the spring mechanism.
- Alfred Gauthier GmbH in Calmbach / Enz , Wuerttemberg supplied the rotary disc lock.
In February 1934 the (sic!) Robot I - derived from the word robot - was presented to the public at the Leipzig trade fair. Robot II was published in 1938 and aroused great interest among the National Socialists and the military. Kilfitt then gave up his company shares and patent rights, at the same time the company was renamed RoBoT Berning & Co, KG .
Around 1940 Kilfitt invested in NEDO-Optik, Munich, and later manufactured ("Kilit") lenses and accessories for cameras in Vaduz . The production of all mechanical cameras, including the robot, but excluding recorders, was discontinued at the end of 2001.
Later the company specialized more and more in technical-scientific photography, especially in surveillance systems. After the first cameras were installed in German police vehicles in the 1950s , monitoring systems for banks were added later, and the first traffic monitoring systems in the 1970s. At that time the company still belonged to Robert Bosch GmbH . The company has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jenoptik AG since 1999. On February 1, 2010, the former Robot Visual Systems GmbH renamed Jenoptik Robot GmbH. With the name change, the logo, the company and the company colors changed (from red-gray to blue-white).
Technical concept of the former cameras
The robot camera uses a rotary shutter . It acts as a rear lens shutter and allows electronic flash units to be used at all shutter speeds. The lock does not have to be tensioned like a focal plane shutter or a central lock , but is immediately ready for use again. In combination with a built-in spring mechanism or an attached or built-in electric motor , series recordings can be made with robot cameras. Robot cameras are more like film cameras than cameras . A disadvantage of the design of the rotary shutter in the robotic camera that only wide-angle lenses with a relatively large cross-sectional width may be used, as for SLR , and long focal lengths to vignetting tend, if not, the exit pupil of the objective by the construction in the vicinity of the closure becomes. Very fast lenses cannot be used either.
Web links
- Jenoptik Robot GmbH
- Robot Camera Historie - private page of the four collectors Rolf Beltermann, Hans Grahner, Claude Bellon and Michael Ensel, since at least 2002, updated September 9, 2017, accessed March 10, 2018.
- Helmut R. Müller: Pacemaker of Photography Article about Heinz Kilfitt. In: Salzburger Nachrichten, print March 20, 1980, accessed March 10, 2018.
Individual evidence
- ↑ RoBoT history robot-camera.de, September 9, 2017, accessed March 10, 2018.
- ↑ Robot De Luxe / Robot Colored
Coordinates: 51 ° 5 ′ 32.8 " N , 6 ° 54 ′ 30.3" E