NewsVIAOPTIC Stories

At the beginning of February, we welcomed 26 students, doctoral candidates and employees from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Technical University of Darmstadt to Leitz Park Wetzlar. Colleagues from Viaoptic GmbH and Leica Camera AG joined forces to organise an exciting excursion into the world of light. The department offers lectures on the subject of lighting technology, so it made sense to get to know companies that deal with the recognition, control, conversion and processing of light signals in the broadest sense.

The visitors started with a tour of VIAOPTIC before moving on to Leica Camera. A tour also took place here, during which the visitors were able to get to know the company and its history. The tours were supplemented by discussion rounds organised by the supervising colleagues. In addition to the presentation of Viaoptic and Leica Camera as potential employers, the employment opportunities and tasks of lighting technology specialists and the entry opportunities after graduation, the question of what future graduates expect from a potential employer and what we can offer at the Leitz-Park campus to be of interest to graduates beyond the region was also discussed.

...We have a lot to offer, was the unanimous conclusion of the STEM talents from Darmstadt. The excursion was rounded off with lunch together at the Leica Casino and a visit to the Ernst Leitz Museum, including a guided tour at the end of the day.

The organisers at Viaoptic and Leica Camera were delighted with the keen interest shown by the future lighting technology specialists.

Many thanks to all colleagues who supported the event!

Just a quarter of all employees remain loyal to a company throughout their entire working life. It is therefore extraordinary when an employee goes into well-deserved retirement after almost fifty years at the company where they started their training.

After more than 50 years with the company, this week we bid Volkmar Groß and all our employees farewell on his retirement. For him, a time full of freedom, enjoyment and new opportunities is now beginning.

CEO Bernhard Willnauer thanked Volkmar Groß for his exceptional loyalty and valuable work at a small celebration and with a gift. He has enriched the VIAOPTIC company for many years. The staff had also collected a joint gift and presented it together with many good wishes for the new phase of his life.

One sentence in particular characterised Volkmar Groß and he will always be fondly remembered:
"I didn't dream of the company's success, I worked for it!"

Once again this year, we decided to make a donation to two charitable organisations instead of giving gifts.

We were able to transfer EUR 1,000.00 each to TAFEL Wetzlar and the EinDollarBrille association and are delighted to be able to make a contribution to helping people affected by poverty in the Central Hesse region and in some of the poorest countries in the world.

Die TAFEL e.V.
Despite still being perfectly edible, tons of food are destroyed in Germany every day. At the same time, there are millions of people in this country who do not have enough to eat. The Tafel are working on bridging this gap between excess on the one hand and lack on the other. They collect qualitatively good food that would otherwise land in the garbage and distribute it for free or a symbolic amount to socially and economically disadvantaged people. There are currently more than 970 Tafel in Germany. All of them are nonprofit organizations. The Tafel support 1.6 to 2 million people in need of food throughout the country – nearly one third of them are children and youth.
tafel.de/english-information

One DollarGlasses - Good vision for all people.
The goal of one dollar glasses is the etablishment of basic optical care for everyone, read more about the concept: onedollarglasses.org/concept/

We would like to thank all associations, organisations and volunteers for their commitment, which deserves great respect.
They work voluntarily and often unpaid for the common good. We also have many employees in our ranks who are involved in civil defence and disaster control organisations in their private time. Thank you for your commitment!

We would also like to thank our customers and business partners for the trust they have placed in us this year and look forward to further successful projects in the coming year 2024.

The entire VIAOPTIC team

Our extension is taking shape and will enable us to expand our capacity by around 60% on 3,450 square metres of floor space. The new space will mainly be used by our toolmaking and administration departments from 2024. The warehouse will also be modernised and expanded.

Newly acquired orders and increasing automation in injection moulding production are responsible for the increased space requirements. Five of our currently 30 injection moulding machines are automated. There are also special orders that are manufactured under clean room conditions.

VIAOPTIC currently employs 165 people. The number of employees is set to grow to 200 in the future.

This year, VIAOPTIC GmbH looks back on 20 years of company history. The company celebrated the occasion with an anniversary event for around 160 employees, which was also attended by the company advisory board and its chairman, Dr. Andreas Kaufmann.

The managing directors Bernhard Willnauer and Uwe Bommersheim welcomed the staff and guests and thanked the employees for their commitment and many years of loyalty with a ceremony.

Since the spin-off from Feinwerktechnik Wetzlar GmbH (FTW) in 2003, VIAOPTIC exists in its current form. The experience in the field of plastic optics goes back more than 50 years and began within the Leitz Group. Located in the Leitz-Park in Wetzlar, the company develops, manufactures, and assembles optical components and systems made of plastic. Within this product range, the company is one of the leading experts for the automotive, sensor technology, and medical technology industries.

Anniversary event with a celebration speech by Dr. Andreas Kaufmann

During the anniversary celebration, the managing directors Bernhard Willnauer and Uwe Bommersheim, the chairman of the works council Stefan Brandl and the chairman of the advisory board of VIAOPTIC, Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, delivered speeches and recounted key points of the company's history. The origins of VIAOPTIC dates back to the injection molding department of LEICA Camera AG, which was !!!then housed!!! in the Taubenstein facility under the name Feinwerktechnik Wetzlar (FTW). The combination of toolmaking, injection molding, and optical expertise from Leica provided the ideal conditions for producing optical components from plastic. Hardly any other company had been able to replicate this until then. In 2002, the idea of polymer optics became concrete and LEICA was seeking a new owner. The focus on polymer optics no longer aligned with LEICA cameras and binoculars. Thus, the idea of VIAOPTIC was born, and its journey to today's success story began on Ludwig-Erk-Straße in Wetzlar.

Without VIAOPTIC no entry of ACM 2004 at LEICA Camera AG

The new VIAOPTIC was born in 2003 with 25 employees and was taken over by Austrian Capital Management GmbH (ACM). As Dr. Andreas Kaufmann elaborated in his speech, VIAOPTIC played a role in two significant developments at LEICA. The investor ACM would not have decided to join LEICA if there had been no connection to the camera manufacturer through VIAOPTIC, and without VIAOPTIC's need for space and the search for a suitable site, the idea of Leitz Park would never have been born. But the first four years were difficult for the young company. Large investments were made, which at the same time laid the foundation for later growth. Plans for the location also became concrete in 2007 and VIAOPTIC, with 45 employees and 12 injection molding machines at the time, moved to the Leitz-Park optics campus in Wetzlar in 2009. At that time, the Leitz-Park consisted of only two companies, Uwe Weller Feinwerktechnik and VIAOPTIC.

Milestones and growth from 25 to over 100 employees

In the third year after moving to Leitz-Park, VIAOPTIC successfully established a crucial new technology for the company's future by setting up PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) coating. At the same time, VIAOPTIC founded its assembly department in 2011 to combine optical and electronic components. Subsequent years were marked by continuous growth. Steady growth characterized the following years. In 2015, the company already had more than 100 employees and started with the process of continuous improvement process (CIP), better known as LEAN, which enables the company to continuously improve even today. Among other things, this paved the way from a national to an international player.

Another milestone was the entry into automation. This allowed VIAOPTIC to produce polymer optics in large-scale production at globally competitive prices in Germany. With five existing modular automation lines today, the company strengthen its position as an innovation and quality leader in the still young plastic optics industry.

As part of the 13th Wetzlar Herbsttagung of Photonics Hub GmbH. VIAOPTIC provided the opportunity for a an exclusive company tour. 32 attendees were given an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the production of high-precision polymer optics and plastic optical components for light guidance.

This year's Photonics Hub conference in Wetzlar was themed "Modern Optics Manufacturing," with a particular focus on topics such as miniaturization, as well as the use and processing of polymer optics. The participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas and deepen their knowledge through engaging presentations.

We thank als our sales team, especially Dr. Markus Cremer who held an impressive presentation on properties of optical polymers for injection molding.

Run for charity. For the 22nd time, the Wetzlar Brückenlauf on September 1, 2023, once again attracted numerous runners from schools, associations and companies in the city of Wetzlar and Mittelhessen region.

As always, a social aspect was the focus of the event: The entry fees of the companies in 2023 will benefit the Sportkreis Lahn-Dill e. V. for the project "Inclusion in sports". To promote inclusion in sports, the Sportkreis Lahn-Dill e. V. uses the entry fees from the 22nd Wetzlar Bridge Run to support clubs and initiatives in Wetzlar that need funds for barrier-free access to sports offerings or that are launching specific inclusive sports offerings.

Two teams ran on the past Friday in VIAOPTIC shirts with the motto #runwithus, completing 6 laps each. In total, 519 teams took on the athletic challenge on the 2 km-long course, with the motivation to achieve a common goal taking center stage.

We would like to thank all the runners and volunteers who contributed to the success of the event.

We will be joining the ISAL Symposium - International Symposium on Automotive Lighting conference in Darmstadt, Germany ; September 25-27, 2023.

The International Symposium on Automotive Lighting – or ISAL for short – encourages the exchange between lighting engineers, road safety experts and regulative bodies.

Contact us if you would like to book a meeting with us there.

Volkmar Groß began his apprenticeship as a toolmaker at Ernst Leitz Wetzlar GmbH, a predecessor of today's VIAOPTIC, on August 1, 1973, when he was 14 years old. "I was already interested in math and handicraft lessons during school, so I applied." At that time, the hiring process took place in the training center of the Hausertorwerk Wetzlar. He received the job offer on the same day.

After successfully completing his basic military service, he returned to work at the Leitz factories on January 1, 1979, mainly engaged in machine and bench work in cutting and stamping toolmaking.

As the plastic injection molding department expanded, he was increasingly involved in moldmaking, which laid the foundation for his current position as a machine setter.

We are proud to have such a dedicated and loyal employee among us. Volkmar Groß is a role model for the entire workforce and a symbol of continuity and success! Thank you!

Today the "World's leading trade fair for the photonics industry" - LASER World of Photonics in Munich 2023 opened its doors!

Meet us at our booth Hall A2/325 and discuss your applications with our experts on-site.