Digitalization, big data and the Internet of Things are now also playing a major role in sensor technology. What trends do you see in this area?
Manufacturers and service providers in all sectors who want to be successful in the long term cannot ignore these topics. This also includes sensor manufacturers like us. Asia, for example, is a pioneer in many areas of industry and technology. This is why companies from Europe and the USA can take their lead from the standards there and use them as a model for their own company, especially if they are planning to gain a foothold in the Asian region themselves. Today, customers want to access information as quickly and easily as possible. This is only possible through the digitalization of processes and products. This is due to changes in the customer experience: decision-making processes take less time and there are fewer touchpoints between manufacturers and customers. Digital product configurators and online content will largely replace technical advice over the phone in the medium term. We are therefore pursuing the goal of using CTO (Configure to Order) processes to give customers the opportunity to configure and enquire about our products digitally. This is possible without any problems because the configuration largely consists of parameter sets. It also means that data such as temperature, degree of soiling and brightness measured by the sensor can also be made available to the customer unfiltered. The company can either process this data collection (big data) itself, or we can work together to create a digital infrastructure that delivers valuable results with the help of data analysis (smart data).

How has Captron adapted its portfolio to this?
We have been involved in the development of sensor technology for over 35 years now and have brought many different variants onto the market during this time. Our portfolio and our product series are correspondingly large. The portfolio of variants and product series has grown considerably, especially when there are different hardware requirements or requirements that could only be implemented with hardware changes at the time. The challenge now is not only to develop new products but also to apply the newly developed technologies to existing products. This is already happening bit by bit until all products have reached the digital standard.

Networking is also giving rise to new business models. What opportunities do you see here for sensor and measurement technology?
We do indeed see great opportunities: Captron is currently in a transformation phase from being a sole component supplier to an additional partner for integration solutions. The digitalization of processes and products requires more than just the sale of sensors; the market demands solutions that go beyond this. This also includes interface programming for communication between sensors and MES (Manufacturing Execution System), for example - especially when there are special applications that are not covered by standardized protocols such as I/O Link.