About CI Tech Sensors

Based in the Swiss town of Burgdorf, CI Tech Sensors is a development, manufacturing and service centre for banknote sensors. We have been a joint subsidiary of the two technology groups Diebold Nixdorf Inc. (North Canton/USA, formerly Wincor Nixdorf) and Giesecke+Devrient GmbH (Munich/Germany) since 2004 and 2011, respectively.

Diebold Nixdorf is the global market leader for the automation of cash transactions seen in branch systems at banks and retailers.
www.dieboldnixdorf.com
Giesecke+Devrient is the global market leader in the production and automated processing of banknotes for central banks and cash centres.
www.gi-de.com

The banknote sensors we develop and produce are used predominantly in the devices from our two parent companies, meaning CI Tech Sensors is a technological focal point for both of them.

Additionally, we supply banknote sensors to third-party customers (OEM) through our sister company CI Tech Components.
www.citech.com

Our network

Our network of international partners allows us to identify developments and changes in currencies in good time and to react accordingly. In addition to the banknote industry, we also maintain close ties with central banks across the world and are able to utilise the networks of our two parent companies in the fields of pre-processing and post-processing.

Our partner network

Banknote industry

Banknotes are a high-tech product whose development requires a great deal of expertise – not only in terms of paper/substrates and printing/ink but also relating to security features and automated processing. In order to identify the latest banknote trends and developments in good time, we maintain close ties with the most important players in the industry and also with our parent company Giesecke+Devrient. We examine new and potential security features used on banknotes to see whether they can be inspected using machines and whether they are counterfeit-proof.

Central banks

Our network also includes central banks across the world, which allows us to keep up with the latest information relating to new issues and frameworks. We also advise central banks when new banknote series are being developedregarding machine-readable designs and the automation-compatible definition of new regulations. Moreover, we cooperate with central banks in inspecting special counterfeits and carrying out analyses for fitness sorting.

Partner for currency adaptations

We make use of the global sales and service network of our two parent companies in the field of local pre-processing and post-processing. This allows us to access banknotes and their raw data in the corresponding country in order to create the software used for parameterisation. This also includes qualification measures, such as carrying out mass testing with local banknotes in street quality.

Our core competencies

Around 100 staff – most of them highly qualified specialists – work in Burgdorf in a wide range of different roles.

Sensor engineering

The sensor team develops and takes care of the banknote sensors. The core competence of the team is the design of systems with optimised service lives used for processing various image data and the data of individual sensors. To this end, the team contains specialists in the fields of electronics, firmware, qualification, audit chains and production support.

Banknote engineering

The banknote team develops configurable algorithms and software used for reliable machine recognition of banknotes used in around 100 currencies all over the world. The team boasts extensive technical expertise in the field of machine verifiability, not to mention in the counterfeit and fitness recognition of banknotes. It draws together specialists in algorithms, currency adaptation and qualification, as well as from the application software field.

Supply chain management (SCM)

The SCM team is responsible for the entire value chain of our banknote sensors. Its remit stretches from purchasing and materials scheduling to order processing and logistics, production planning and control, all the way through to assembly, testing and shipping of the devices. Moreover, the SCM team is responsible for analysing flaws and repairing sensors.

Finance & administration (G&A)

The G&A team is responsible for the central services at CI Tech Sensors. Its areas of responsibility include finance, legal, compliance, human resources and team assistance, as well as IT and the infrastructure of our premises.

Our history

1981 – 2011: BEB AG

In 1981, Hans Blaser founded BEB AG in Burgdorf, with the company initially active in various areas of electronics. In 1993, BEB started to establish a business division specialising in banknote sensors. This resulted in a close partnership with Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, part of which eventually became Wincor Nixdorf AG. The joint goal of the companies was to develop cash machines with a combined deposit and withdrawal function in order to implement a closed cash cycle (cash recycling). The first cash recycling system using a BEB banknote sensor was put into operation in January 1998 at a branch of UBS in Zurich – the first system of its kind worldwide outside of Japan.

In subsequent years, BEB experienced strong growth in both its sales and its staff numbers. While the majority of these sales were made with Wincor Nixdorf, BEB also supplied third-party customers around the world with banknote sensors.

In 2004, Wincor Nixdorf acquired BEB in full, although the business activities continued to be managed in Burgdorf with a large degree of autonomy.

2011 – 2015: CI Tech Components

In 2011, Wincor Nixdorf introduced its subsidiary BEB into a joint venture with Giesecke+Devrient, which in turn brought OEM business with cash deposit modules into the merger. Following this step, both business divisions were integrated at the Burgdorf site under the name CI Tech Components, with a new site for R&D also having opened in Dornach near Munich. The joint venture focused on the development of new and convergent platform technologies for banknote sensors and cash deposit modules.

Since 2016: CI Tech Sensors

At the start of 2016, the joint venture was split again into two independent sister companies. The module business remained with CI Tech Components while the banknote sensor business was taken over by the newly established CI Tech Sensors, thus carrying on in the tradition of its predecessor BEB.

CI Tech Sensors – in use worldwide