weber Sensors

What weber Sensors does

Weber Sensors GmbH is a privately held German industrial sensor manufacturer founded in 1955 by Günther Weber in Weinheim and now headquartered in Kollmar, north of Hamburg. Operating under the registered 'captor' trademark, the company designs and produces sensors for monitoring and measuring liquid and gaseous media in industrial automation, serving OEMs, system integrators, and end customers in steel and metals, automotive, HVAC, power generation, water treatment, and food processing.

The product portfolio is built on a proprietary calorimetric (thermal mass) flow sensing principle pioneered by Weber more than 30 years ago and spans five lines: Flow-Captor and Vent-Captor for liquid and gaseous flow monitoring respectively, Proxi-Captor inductive proximity switches for the steel industry, Foto-Captor hot metal detectors for steel mills, and supporting power supply units and accessories. Differentiating technical features include a no-moving-parts design for reliability in harsh environments, extended linear measuring ranges up to 4 m/s for liquids and 50 m/s for gases, multi-media calibration, EHEDG-certified sanitary variants for food applications, and remote sensor configurations for high-temperature or restricted-access installations. The main Kollmar production site operates under DIN EN ISO 9001:2015 certification.

The business model is hardware-centric B2B sales of catalog and custom-engineered sensors, with revenue generated through a combination of direct sales offices in Germany, the US, and the UK and a dense global network of sales partners covering most industrialized countries. The international group is coordinated by Captor Management Inc. (US, established 1999); the company operates from a single German manufacturing footprint following the 2016 closure of its Ireland plant, and it employs approximately 100 people worldwide with no external equity investment or public listing evidenced.

Name

weber Sensors

Legal name

weber Sensors International

Website

https://captor.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1955

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Weber Sensors GmbH is a privately held German manufacturer of calorimetric flow, vent, proximity, and hot-metal sensors sold under the captor brand. It serves OEMs and industrial end users in steel, automotive, HVAC, power, water, and food processing across roughly 100 employees and direct-plus-partner distribution in industrialized countries worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Industrial Sensors

NAICS

Instruments and Related Products Manufacturing for Measuring, Displaying, and Controlling Industrial Process Variables (334513), Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing (334519)

SIC

Industrial Instruments For Measurement, Display, And Control (3823), Electrical Industrial Apparatus (3620)

akta.pro primary industry

Industrial Sensors (Pressure, Temperature, Flow, Level, Proximity, Vibration) (IMAGAFAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Sensors & Feedback Devices (Pressure, Flow, Position, Encoders, Transducers) (IMAHAGAK)

Keywords

• Industrial flow sensors
• Calorimetric flow measurement
• Inductive proximity switches
• Hot metal detectors
• Gaseous media monitoring

Headquarters

HQ city

Kollmar

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Industrial Sensor Products (Flow, Vent, Proxi, Foto Captors): Sale of industrial sensors for monitoring and measuring liquid and gaseous media, as well as inductive proximity switches and hot metal detectors. Products sold as standard catalog items or as custom-engineered integrated sensor solutions for OEM system partnerships. Revenue derived from product sales, with support, installation and commissioning services as an additional component.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

weber Sensors designs, manufactures and sells captor-branded industrial sensors for monitoring and measuring liquids and gases in industrial automation. The portfolio is built on a proprietary calorimetric (thermal mass) sensing principle and consists of Flow-Captor (liquid media), Vent-Captor (air/gases), Proxi-Captor (inductive proximity for steel industry) and Foto-Captor (static infrared hot metal detectors for steel mills), plus 24 VDC power supply units as accessories. Products are sold as standard catalog items or as custom-engineered integrated solutions to international OEMs and system integrators.

Product overview

weber Sensors (operating under the Captor brand) is an industrial sensor manufacturer with over 60 years of experience. The product portfolio consists of five main product lines built on the calorimetric sensing principle: Flow Captors for liquid media monitoring/measuring, Vent Captors for air and gaseous media, Proxi Captors for inductive proximity detection in steel industry, Foto Captors for hot metal detection in steel mills, and Power Supply Units as accessories. Flow and Vent Captors are available in insertion types (for pipes from 1/2 inch to 24 inches) and inline types (for small pipes 4-28mm), functioning as both switches (binary output) and meters (analog output). The products share the calorimetric principle pioneered by weber Sensors and are designed for industrial automation applications across automotive, HVAC, power generation, water treatment, food processing, and steel industries. The captor group includes entities in Germany (main production), USA, UK, and Ireland (now closed), with manufacturing certified to DIN EN ISO 9001:2015.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Flow-Captor: Flow sensors for monitoring or measuring liquid media using calorimetric principle; available as switches or meters, insertion and inline types.
• Vent-Captor
• Proxi-Captor
• Foto-Captor
• Power Supply Units
• i-captor

Products and services

• Flow Captors High-precision, compact and robust flow sensors for monitoring or measuring liquid media, available as switches (binary output) or meters (analog output). Based on the calorimetric sensing principle with no moving parts; available as insertion type for pipes from 1/2 inch up to 24 inches and inline type for small pipes (4-28 mm), with multi-media calibration for water, oil, air and other media on request.
• Vent Captors Compact electronic sensors for monitoring or measuring air and other gaseous media, operating on the calorimetric principle with no moving parts. Available as switches or meters, insertion and inline types, for pipes 1 inch and larger, with pressure ratings up to 10 bar and stainless-steel IP67 variants.
• Proxi Captors Inductive proximity switches and meters for contactless switching tasks in heavy industry and steel plants, with switching distances up to 250 mm, high-temperature variants up to 200°C, and analog distance-meter versions.
• Foto Captors Static infrared Hot Metal Detectors (HMD) for steel mill and hot-metal applications, operating reliably under rough working conditions without moving parts. Available in compact (electronics and optics in one unit) and remote versions (separate electronics and optics connected via IR light guide cable), with multiple viewing angles (0.5° to 25°) and response temperatures up to 800°C.
• Power Supply Units Power supply units designed for use with Flow-Captor and Vent-Captor products that require a 24 VDC supply, supporting PNP or NPN switching sensors with isolated SPDT volt-free relay output and multiple supply voltage options (9-36 VDC, 18-75 VDC, 85-264 VAC).

Quantifiable outcome

• foto-captor remains the leading Hot Metal Detector in the steel industry since its introduction in 1955
• +2 more outcomes

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature9 records

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Wenglor Sensoric: Mid-sized German manufacturer of inductive, photoelectric, ultrasonic and flow sensors for industrial automation. Closely comparable in size, geography, and product breadth to weber Sensors.
• KROHNE Group: Specialized in industrial process flow and level measurement instrumentation. Direct overlap with weber's flow-captor line for liquid media across process industries.
• IFM Electronic: German-based manufacturer of industrial sensors (flow, proximity, level, pressure) for factory automation. Highly comparable mid-sized industrial sensor specialist competing in the same calorimetric-style flow and proximity niches as weber.
• Pepperl+Fuchs: Industrial sensor manufacturer with strong inductive proximity and hazardous-area sensor lines serving heavy industry. Comparable to weber's proxi-captor proximity-switch portfolio for steel and process plants.
• SICK AG: Major German sensor manufacturer producing flow, presence-detection and process sensors for industrial automation. Direct competitor for weber's flow and vent captor product lines.
• Endress+Hauser: Global leader in industrial process instrumentation including flow, level, pressure and temperature measurement. Strongly comparable to weber Sensors' flow-captor/vent-captor portfolio targeting liquids and gases in industrial automation.
• Balluff: Family-owned German industrial sensor specialist (inductive proximity, flow, pressure) serving factory automation. Comparable mid-sized private industrial sensor maker with broad vertical coverage.
• Baumer Group: Swiss-German industrial sensor maker covering process and factory automation sensors including flow, proximity and temperature. Comparable mid-tier industrial sensor specialist with similar European footprint.

Broad incumbents

• Omron Industrial Automation: Global industrial automation incumbent offering a broad portfolio of flow, proximity and process sensors as part of a wider automation stack. Competes with weber in flow and proximity but at much larger scale and broader scope.
• Siemens Process Instrumentation: Diversified industrial conglomerate with a SITRANS process-instrumentation line covering flow, level and pressure sensors. Competes with weber in industrial flow measurement but as part of a much broader automation portfolio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/weber-sensors-gmbh

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about weber Sensors