As planned, the southern German company achieved growth of 15 percent compared to the previous year. IDS attributes the positive figures to the development of new products, future-oriented collaborations and good delivery performance thanks to an easing of supply chains. The high level of inventory of components enables all products to be delivered within two weeks. On the other hand, the VDMA reports a nominal decline in sales of minus 11 percent for German manufacturers of image processing components in the first three quarters of 2023, with a sharp decline in incoming orders.

In an industry comparison, the people of Obersulm do well. Sales in the DACH region in particular developed above average. IDS sees even greater potential in the US and Asian markets following the turbulence caused by the chip crisis. The aim here in 2024 is to generate further market shares. The development and introduction of new products should make a decisive contribution to this.

Last year, the Ensenso C was placed in the rapidly growing 3D segment. More cameras are to follow. Numerous model additions are also planned in the uEye+ 2D camera families, including through the integration of new sensors. “In this way, we are creating more options for our customers - from the entry-level range to the 10GigE camera series. At the same time, we will continuously improve our IDS peak SDK. There will be several free software updates for this over the course of 2024," explains IDS Managing Director Jan Hartmann. The IDS NXT platform in the AI segment is also to be expanded by introducing new models. At the same time, it is planned to expand the capabilities of the IDS NXT malibu to expand - the first industrial camera with results overlay in the video live stream. The latter is made possible by the integration of a SoC (system-on-chip) from Ambarella. This as well as the sales partnership with the Fraunhofer spin-off DENKweit GmbH in relation to their AI-based image analysis is pushing forward the development of future technologies. Since the beginning of the year, the company has also been a member of the Artificial Intelligence Innovation Park (IPAI), an innovation-promoting ecosystem that is being created in Heilbronn.

The family business is also well positioned at management level. At the turn of the year, founder and partner Jürgen Hartmann handed over management of the operational business and will in future be the company's Chief Innovation Manager, providing advice in the areas of technologies and innovations. Here you can read more about it.