Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH
German optical manufacturer founded 1913 in Bad Kreuznach; world market leader in high-performance machine vision lenses and optical filters.
Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH, trading as Schneider-Kreuznach, is a German manufacturer of high-performance optical lenses, filters, and precision optical systems. Founded on 28 December 1912 (incorporated 1913) by Josef Schneider and Hermann Bauer in Bad Kreuznach, Germany, the company has grown into a world market leader in industrial, film, and photographic optics. Since 1982 the company has been family-owned by the Manderman family and remains headquartered in Bad Kreuznach.
The Schneider Group encompasses the German parent company, a Singapore subsidiary, Schneider Optics (New York and Los Angeles), Schneider Optical Technologies (Shenzhen), and Schneider Asia Pacific (Hong Kong), employing approximately 220 people worldwide with around 200 at the German headquarters.
For the industrial optics and machine vision market, Schneider-Kreuznach designs and manufactures a broad portfolio of fixed focal length lenses, telecentric lenses, high-resolution lenses for metrology, low-light lenses, SWIR-optimized lenses, liquid lens systems for dynamic focusing, and custom-engineered optics for high-volume production. The company's industrial optics are used in machine vision systems for optical inspection, 3D measurement, traffic monitoring, medical imaging, crash-test documentation, and robotics vision. Schneider-Kreuznach has been a partner of NASA since the 1960s, with industrial lenses used on multiple space missions including a rocket flight to the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021.
Beyond machine vision, the company is a major supplier to the cinema industry, earning multiple Scientific and Technical Academy Awards (the technology Oscar) for cinema projection lenses. Its B+W brand photographic filters are established premium products worldwide. Other owned brands include Pentacon, FF-Prime, Xenon, and Variogon.
Schneider-Kreuznach is a member of the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA) and SPECTARIS.
Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:
C-Mount Lenses
Standardized C-mount industrial lenses for machine vision.
Telecentric Lenses (SYLVINE)
Telecentric lenses for distortion-free metrology and inspection.
SWIR Lenses (CHAROITE)
Short-wave infrared lenses for material inspection.
Large Format Lenses (THULITE)
Lenses for large image-circle sensors, high-resolution imaging.
Liquid Lenses (PYRITE LF)
Wear-free liquid-focus lenses for dynamic focusing.
Line Scan Lenses (DIAMOND)
Precision optics for line scan sensors.
Fast Lenses (ONYX)
Wide-aperture lenses for low-light machine vision.
Optical Filters
Bandpass, SWIR and polarizer optical filters for imaging.
Contact Jos. Schneider Optische Werke GmbH
WEBSITE
https://schneiderkreuznach.com/en/industrial-opticsPHONE
+49 671 601 0HEADQUARTERS
Germany
Company Facts
Founded
1913
Primary Role
Component Supplier
Company Size
-
Primary Region
Europe
Annual Sales
-
Funding Stage
-
Funding Total
-
Keywords
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Innovation Military
Humanoid Robot Demonstrates Agility on Monkey Bars in Latest Video Showcase
In the latest edition of Video Friday, a humanoid robot showcases its ability to traverse monkey bars, demonstrating advanced agility and perception of complex 3D structures. This task requires the robot to jump onto the structure, navigate through sparse bar interactions, and land safely, highlighting its whole-body motion capabilities. The significance of this demonstration lies in its implications for humanoid robotics, particularly in environments where navigating thin and overhanging geometries is essential. As humanoid robots become more adept at traversing challenging obstacles, the potential applications in search and rescue, disaster response, and other critical fields continue to expand. Looking ahead, the upcoming Humanoids Summit in Seoul and other robotics events scheduled for late 2026 will likely feature further advancements in humanoid robotics. No further timeline was disclosed at the time of publication.
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ACE Robotics and NTU S-Lab Release Open-Source Puffin-World Multimodal Model
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Northrop Grumman's Lumberjack Drone Successfully Tests Quantum Navigation Technology
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Military
Tactile Sensing Technology Sees Significant Growth in Robotics Sector
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Ouster Partners with Flyability and GeoCue to Enhance Drone Mapping with Lidar Technology
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Unitree Technology Unveils G1 Autonomous Robot's Real-Time Combat Capabilities
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China’s Dexterous Hand Industry, 2026 Part 1 — The Demand Picture
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China’s Dexterous Hand Industry, 2026 Part 2 — The Technology
Linkage, tendon, direct drive or hybrid — and why hardware is converging while the DL1–DL5 manipulation scale decides who wins. Part 2 of 3.
ROBOTTODAY WEEKLY BRIEFING August 24 – 28, 2026
This week in robotics: XPeng's Dogotix raises over $900 million at a $6.3 billion valuation, Unitree's post-IPO slump revives bubble talk, Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games close with a shift to real-world tasks, and Teradyne sues JAKA at Europe's Unified Patent Court. August 24–28, 2026.
WRC 2026 Core Components: 137 Robot Parts Suppliers
The third report in the WRC 2026 series. Report 1 mapped all 248 exhibitors by category and Report 2 covered the 139 that build finished robots. This one covers the 137 that build what goes inside them.
WRC 2026 Exhibitor Map: 248 Robotics Companies Mapped
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Handbook of Marine Craft Hydrodynamics and Motion Control Thor I. Fossen — RSF Specialist Shelf · Book S1 of 6
Added mass, wave loading, DVL navigation: the marine GNC reference for USV, ROV and AUV service engineers. The hardest book on the RSF list, 5/5.
Small Unmanned Aircraft: Theory and Practice Beard & McLain — RSF Specialist Shelf · Book S2 of 6
Beard & McLain derive the fixed-wing autopilot the RSF Top 10 never does: successive loop closure on roll, pitch, altitude and airspeed. 4/5.
Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction Richard S. Sutton & Andrew G. Barto — RSF Specialist Shelf · Book S5 of 6
“It's the AI” will not satisfy an OEM support call. Sutton & Barto turn that into something a service engineer can investigate. Free PDF, Part I 4/5.
Planning Algorithms Steven M. LaValle — RSF Specialist Shelf · Book S4 of 6
The reference that treats planning as a subject in its own right: configuration space, sampling-based methods, RRT. Free online, dual difficulty 4/5-2/5.
Underactuated Robotics Russ Tedrake — RSF Specialist Shelf · Book S3 of 6
Legged robots fall over for control reasons, not mechanical ones. Tedrake's free MIT 6.832 notes explain why, and what a controller must do about it.
