Merger with LASOR Will Make ISRA the Market Leader in Europe

After all, even the tiniest errors on expansive surfaces must be identified with 100% certainty at a high production speed. The goal is to surpass the functioning of the human eye, while replacing inspectors’ personal subjectivity, tolerance and discretionary powers with reliable, reproducible error detection and evaluation. The laser scanners long used in the industry were difficult to operate yet an important stage in the development of this technology.

The rapid development of camera technology with highperformance line-scan cameras brought about a wide-reaching breakthrough. In addition, economical computing systems in combination with the right software are now able to process complex algorithms at a high data throughput rate in real time. Intelligent line-scan cameras, the latest development, offer integrated data processing. They recognize the material errors themselves and reduce the large amounts of image data material to production-relevant information. This information
can then be easily transmitted over a network and processed.

Thanks to its long-standing competence in registering,
localizing and evaluating errors for a wide variety of applications, ISRA Vision Systems is one of the ompanies etting worldwide technical standards in the field of ptical uality inspection of surfaces. LASOR AG is likewise ne of the leading companies for glass, security paper and paper for special usages. The merger of the two companies is setting a new milestone in the field of automation and quality assurance through machine vision: ISRA & LASOR are now the leading machine vision company in Germany and Europe in terms of revenue and number of employees. They will now also assure a leading international position in the field of glass and foil inspection. ISRA has a portfolio of successful optical surface inspection systems for fully automated error detection on demanding surfaces. Sophisticated lighting systems work together with state-of-the-art camera systems and handle error detection and evaluation with suitable evaluation logic. In addition, ISRA can fall back on its many years of experience as an image processing specialist. LASOR AG in Oerlinghausen likewise has many years of experience in the inspection of special papers, beverage boxes and float glass in the surface inspection industry.

Feldmühle AG, an important paper manufacturer, founded Sortiermaschinen GmbH in 1959. The new company’s main task was the development, production and supply of inspection systems for the paper industry. In the course of further development, LASOR and Systronics Inc. merged in 2000. The latter is now a branch office in Atlanta, Georgia. With a total of 65 employees, LASOR generated sales revenue of more than EUR 10 million last year including business in Asia. The two companies are now pooling their long standing competence in surface vision. They are achieving substantial synergies in their operational spheres as well as in terms of markets and technology. The joint ISRA & LASOR surface vision product portfolio will be substantially expanded. Customers of both companies will benefit through the extensive offer of leading standard solutions from a single source covering nearly all of the production and process steps for technical material surfaces in the target markets such as glass, paper, foil, plastic and non-wovens. ISRA & LASOR are experiencing a substantial growth in sales power in Asia and America in particular. ISRA is building its second NorthAmerican site key to market development in Atlanta, where the U.S. subsidiary LASOR Systronics Inc. is located. The other North American site is in Lansing, Michigan. The chairman of the two companies Enis Ersü, CEO of ISRA Vision Systems AG and Heinz J. Benninghoff, CEO of LASOR AG—see the merger as another important milestone on the way to becoming a globally operating, full solution provider of machine vision systems for industry automation. This is especially applicable to the entire optical surface vision industry. Enis Ersü: “In the future, we will be able to act as a full service provider for all of the technical surfaces and sheet good inspection fields. We are thus the technological and market leaders worldwide and the No. 1 in Europe in this important quality assurance sector. In the optical glass inspection sector, we already occupy the top position worldwide.” Heinz J. Benninghoff adds: "In the future, we will offer the world’s most extensive product portfolio for surface vision. We can thus solve all of our customers’ issues in an optimal manner, thereby dramatically increasing their global competitiveness.”

With some 265 employees and locations in Germany, France, Italy, the U.S.A. and Asia, the ISRA Group, including LASOR, will now be able to offer its customers worldwide improved onsite service, increased support as well as competent consulting services available anywhere. And all this as a secure, financially strong corporation.