Founder Erwin Sick 

1909
Erwin Sick was born on 3 November in Heilbronn, the son of a locomotive driver.

1924 - 1928
Trained in optics and was journeyman.

1928 - 1931
Attended technical college for light engineering and optics in Göttingen.

1932
Start of career at Siemens & Halske, Berlin, as optical arithmetician. The arithmetic department was closed after six months. Erwin Sick was moved to the Laboratory and was given experimental, arithmetic and constructive tasks, particularly in the area of colour film.

1934 - 1939
Employee – initially as constructor, later as engineer – at Siemens, Bosch and Askania working on demanding development projects on colour film, cinematics, astronomical and physical devices.

1939 - 1945
Laboratory Manager at the optical works of A.C. Steinheil & Söhne, Munich.

1944
Married Gisela Neumann.

1945
Became self-employed: in an old barracks in Vaterstetten near Munich, where Erwin Sick lived with his wife, he single-mindedly followed his technological development aims to produce optical-electronic devices. Erwin Sick financed his family with earnings from radios he made himself.
  
1946
Founded what was later to become SICK AG on 26 September: the politically guiltless Erwin Sick received a permit from the American military government "to practice his profession as an engineer."

1949
First orders received at the first "Achema" fair taking place in Frankfurt after many years interruption. Achema was an "exhibition meeting for chemical apparatus" organised by suppliers to the chemical industry.

1951
At the "German Inventor and New Development Trade Fair" in Munich in July Sick presents the first wooden model he had made of his light curtain and receives a certificate "for exceptional creative performance". The patent registration that takes place on 20 October of the light curtain invented by Erwin Sick on the autocollimator principle is the technical breakthrough and the basis of an entire programme of devices.

1952
At the "Second International Machine Tool Exhibition" in Hanover, Sick presents the first marketable accident prevention light curtain. The orders received allow the first serial production and also, finally, the company's economic breakthrough.

1954
Erwin Sick tries in vain to obtain a loan from the Free State of Bavaria to build up the company. When Baden-Württemberg offers to give him one he moves from Munich to Oberkirch in Baden.

1956
Relocation of the company, with its 25 employees, from Oberkirch to Waldkirch – into the building of August Faller KG, An der Allee 7-9.

In October Sick is granted the patent for a new type of photoelectric reflex switch that will later become the product with one of the company's strongest sales.

1960
Founding of the "Institute for Automation" in Munich for developing optoelectronic devices for industry. Sick's main argument for founding the organisation in Bavaria's state capital is the shortage of qualified engineers in Waldkirch.

1971
Erwin Sick is presented with the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ist Class) by Justice Minister Rudolf Schieler on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the company on 26 November.

1976/77
Building on Sebastian-Kneipp-Strasse put up. The house at An der Allee 7 – 9 is returned to the town.

1977
Moved into the new works on Sebastian-Kneipp-Strasse, which is still the company's headquarters.

1980
On 19 November the Faculty for Machines at the Technical University of Munich awards Erwin Sick his honorary Doctorate in engineering in recognition of his contribution "to scientific and constructive development of optical devices with electronic signal evaluation".

1982
On 2 December Erwin Sick receives the Diesel Medal in Gold "for his numerous inventions in optoelectronics".

1988
On 3 December the 79-year-old Erwin Sick suffered a fatal heart attack.