Gentex

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Not to be confused with Gentex Corporation, a defense contractor.

A Gentex auto-dimming car mirror.

Gentex (NASDAQ: GNTX) is a company specializing in fire protection and automotive products based in Zeeland, Michigan, USA.

Gentex was founded in 1974 as a manufacturer of fire protection products. The company created the first dual-sensor photoelectric smoke detector, considered to be less prone to false alarms, while still quickly detecting smoldering fires.

Gentex also manufactures automatically-dimming rear-view mirrors, which account for 96% of the company's revenue,^[1] based on a technology called electrochromics. These mirrors dim to reduce glare which could otherwise be blinding when present and produce a temporary blind spot on the retina when its source exits from view (this second effect is based on an after-image to remain on the retina; this phenomenon is called Troxler effect).

In 2007, General Motors Corporation (19%), Daimler AG (15%), Toyota Motor Corporation (13%) and BMW (12%) collectively accounted for 59% (including sales to their Tier 1 suppliers) of Gentex' annual sales. ^[2] The Company shipped approximately 8,924,000 interior auto-dimming mirrors in 2005, 9,426,000 in 2006, and 11,001,000 in 2007. ^[3]

In addition, Gentex manufactures SmartBeam, which consists of headlamps that automatically change between high and low beams based on sensor input and can protrude outward of the body to illuminate areas adjacent to the automobile.