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NH). “Ironically, the fiber laser was invented at about the
same time as the CO2 laser, yet it took many decades for the
fiber laser to make its way into industry. However, despite the
huge growth of the fiber laser market, the CO2 laser market
still seems to be quite robust.”
The Laser Product segment of GSI Group (GSIG; Bedford,
MA)—the largest of its three segments—grew Q1 revenues
10% versus a year ago. “Our sealed CO2 laser product line
had strong demand during the quarter, with sales increas-
ing 15% versus Q1 a year ago,” said GSIG CEO John Roush.
“CO2 customers showed strong interest in some of our new
products, including our mid-power pulsed P250 laser and our
Flyer 3D marking head, which can be paired with our CO2
lasers ranging from 10 to 400 W.”
“With emission in the 9 to 11 µm range, CO2 laser pulses
are 10 times longer than visible-to near-IR fiber laser puls-
es,” says Yong Zhang, CEO of Access Laser (Everett, WA).
“Radiation from a CO2 laser is better absorbed by a different
group of materials, including almost everything that looks
transparent to the eye, white or near-white, and organic ma-
terials—a fundamental reason why the CO2 laser is not easily
replaced in the market. While ultraviolet lasers can process
many of these same materials, they are orders of magnitude
more expensive than the CO2 laser.”
Zhang also points out that the good old 10. 6 µm stan-
dard is no longer enough and that commercial CO2 laser
manufacturers now offer 9. 3, 9. 6, and 10. 3 µm wavelengths
that provide unique capabilities for different materials—
enabling applications that give the CO2 laser new life for
years to come.
Melles Griot (Carlsbad, CA), a unit of IDEX Corporation
(Lake Forest, IL), says that He-Ne and Ar/Kr gas laser sales
continue to decline in favor of diode-pumped solid-state
[DPSS] laser options, but are stable for applications with critical performance parameters such as long coherence length
and single-mode operation. “Gas laser products and the
important customers that utilize them are critical to Melles
Griot’s future success and we will continue to over-serve
them,” says Rob Beeson, GM of the IOP Life Sciences and
Medical Optics Business Unit of Melles Griot. For calendar
Q3 2014, IDEX sales were up 9% (7% organically, 1% from
acquisitions, and 1% from foreign currency translation) to
$533 million, although sales in the laser segment were es-
sentially flat.
