Industrial Laser Orders Increase in Fourth Quarter

Rebecca C. Jernigan

The “Laser Market Data Survey” released by the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) shows that the orders for industrial laser equipment and systems increased in the fourth quarter of 2007. The AMT Laser Survey is a compilation of the data, voluntarily reported by 24 North American companies, which includes information on orders for complete industrial laser machines (workstations and laser sources), for beam delivery only (workstations) and for sources only.

According to the report, orders for industrial laser equipment and systems rose 17.6 percent from the third quarter of 2007 to a total of $131.1 million. The companies reported orders totaling $111.4 million within North America and exports of $19.7 million. The total value of orders of CO₂ lasers rose 25.3 percent to $120.8 million, with 263 units ordered, while Nd:YAG unit orders fell 22.3 percent to 115. Direct diode, excimer and other lasers also were reported, for a total of 382 units ordered.

Complete laser system orders made up 255 (66.8 percent) of the total number of units but accounted for $120.8 million (92.1 percent) of the total order value. Laser source only orders totaled 123 units (32 percent), while beam delivery only orders accounted for about 1 percent.

AMT also compiled data for all of 2007, which consisted of $512.8 million worth of orders, or 1731 total units ordered. CO₂ lasers accounted for approximately 58 percent of the units ordered and 84 percent of the total value, while Nd:YAG lasers were about 37 percent of the net units ordered.

Complete laser systems, nearly 66 percent of the total units, provided 89 percent of the value. Laser source only orders accounted for 33 and 10 percent, respectively, while workstation only systems made up the remaining 1 percent of each.