Tag Archives: Transportation

Industrial Lasers Focus on Key Markets

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By David A. Belforte

We have all breathed a sigh of relief that the deep recession of 2008/09 is over and that industry has recovered. In the words of one industry association, “the sense of imminent financial contagion has ‘dialed down’ and world economies have drawn back from the brink.” Reality is that aggregate GDP growth in industrialized countries (non-US) is sluggish, and growth in the emerging markets which has accelerated through end of 2013 is expected to decelerate in 2014. This weak global growth translated to a weak outlook for US exports in 2013, but will be rising in 2014. So it is remarkable that in this less than ebullient global economy, manufacturing, specifically that manufacturing that utilizes industrial laser material processing technology, continued to expand in 2013, albeit at a modest pace. Continue reading →

U.S. Strong for Industrial Laser Processing

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David A. Belforte

The recovery from the 2008/2009 global recession was, according to experts, going to take at least three years to reach pre-recession levels. In the United States, manufacturing companies, reacting to orders from pent-up demand and delayed 2009 buying plans, found their production taxed to meet a rapidly growing order book in 2010 followed by a banner year in 2011 and likely through 2012.

Riding on the coat-tails of a more rapid U.S. recovery (see Figure 1) were the suppliers of industrial lasers used to power systems that were being heavily utilized by six key manufacturing industries: transportation, energy, medical devices, agricultural equipment, aerospace and communications. Another sector, fabricated metal products, while slower to recover, is a market sector of importance because of the high value laser products required to cut sheet metal. Continue reading →