Kistler Group

Kistler Group is a Switzerland-based manufacturer of sensors and systems for measuring forces and torques, analyzing force-displacement and force-time characteristics, and documenting data during assembly and product testing. They supply assembly and testing technology as well as specific sensors and monitoring systems for combustion engines, automotive engineering, plastics processing and biomechanical engineering.

The company was founded by Walter P. Kistler and Hans Conrad Sonderegger in 1957 as the Kistler Instrument Corporation, but the enterprise started in 1950 when Kistler patented a charge amplifier he developed. Hans Conrad Sonderegger is the father of the current (2010) CEO. In 1959 the company became active on the stock market. Since 1961 the company started the in house production of charge amplifiers and the development of other sensors. The company made several major innovations, some of which would be put to use in the Apollo manned spaceflights, and became a world leader in the development of quartz sensors. Kistler left the company in 1970 and moved to Seattle, Washington.

Kistler produces piezoelectric sensors (named "channel sensors") used by the Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives (C.I.P.) for proof testing firearms ammunition. These sensors require drilling of the cartridge case before firing the proofing cartridge in a specially made test barrel. For NATO EPVAT testing of military firearms ammunition NATO design EPVAT test barrels with Kistler 6215 transducers are used. For testing shotshell ammunition Kistler produces one type of piezoelectric sensor (called "tangential sensor")'