With the acquisition of Schmid-Engineering, Erlangen, by Kappa Optronics, the former company is to act as an innovation hub for the Group. In addition, founder and previous owner Michael Schmid is moving to Kappa's management team, where he will be responsible for innovation with immediate effect.

In addition, Kappa reports that the entire workforce has been taken over. There are also plans to expand the Erlangen site.

Both companies complement each other

Johannes Overhues, who has been managing director of Kappa Optronics for a good two years, sees the merger as a logical step: Kappa has extensive manufacturing expertise and experience in the development of highly qualified vision systems in accordance with the standards for safety-critical systems, Schmid Engineering brings know-how and its existing partner network in the field of intelligent sensors, highly integrated System on Chips (SOC) for embedded vision, as well as its expertise in ISP tuning and numerous, efficiently implemented, modular IP cores.

The two companies also support each other on an operational basis: Edge computing solutions from Schmid-Engineering can be efficiently implemented for demanding Kappa target markets. Conversely, Kappa takes on some large-volume manufacturing projects for typical Schmid-Engineering applications.