High-Tech Gründerfonds invests in EnShape: Accurate and Rapid 3D-Measurement for Industrial Automation

High accuracy and a high rate of measurement rolled into one system? These combined properties are often desired yet not found in available sensors on the market. Currently, industrial users have to choose between fast and inaccurate or slow and accurate 3D-sensors. EnShape developed a sensor technique which enables full-field measurements with high accuracy and a high rate of measurement. The innovative sensor therefore allows 100 percent inline-inspection at the rate of production. High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Dr. Doll Holding jointly finance this unique technology .

A multitude of products are manufactured in quantity with tight specifications. In order to keep the amount of defective goods to a minimum, instruments for quality control are applied, which in the best case inspect all produced goods. For the inspection of casted, stamped or milled products manufactured at a high rate available accurate 3D-sensors only provide quality control on a sample basis, due to their rather long time of measurement. On the other hand the use of commercial fast 3D-sensors do not provide the required accuracy and precision for most quality inspection tasks.

The founders of EnShape, a spin-off of the University of Jena, have developed a technology, which offers a high accuracy measurement at dramatically reduced time of measurement (up to a factor of 100x). In addition, the team engineered a software which processes the measurement data within milliseconds to not only provide a fast measurement but also a short processing time resulting in a very low latency. Dr. Martin Schaffer, founder and CEO of EnShape, explains: “The technology is not only suitable for inspections tasks with a rate of up to 30 measurements per second but is also advantageous for the recognition and classification of objects based on their 3D-shape.  This field of application is more and more required for industrial automation tasks, where our technology gives the ability of three-dimensional sight to robots. In trial installations our sensor technology already convinced several customers due to the high accuracy and high rate of measurement achieved.“

Dr. Torsten Löffler, Investment Manager at HTGF says: “We are glad, that our seed investment enables the development and the commercial launch of such a relevant and innovative technology in the context of Industry 4.0. The sensor concept perfectly fits into the growing markets for roboter based product handling (Pick&Place) as well as inline-quality control.“
The technology of EnShape is displayed in action at the Control in Stutgart from 05.05.2015 to 08.05.2015 (Hall 5 / Booth 5005).

About EnShape GmbH
The EnShape GmbH is a spin-off of the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena and offers fast and accurate 3D-sensors for industrial applications. The founders were supported by the EXIST-Gründerstipendium of the BMWi in 2014 and received several Start-up awards.
Press Contact:
EnShape GmbH
Moritz-von-Rohr Straße 1a
07745 Jena
+49-3641-48158-0
info@enshape.de
www.enshape.de

About High-Tech Gruenderfonds
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, Bayer, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 576 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 304 million HTGF II).

Contact:
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Torsten Löffler
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Tel: +49 (228) 823 00-100
Fax: +49 (228) 823 000-50
t.loeffler@htgf.de
www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de