Someone ask what the economic value of laser is?

In 1996, Americans sold 7 billion U.S. dollars; in 1997, HGlaser, which represents laser leading level in China, only sold 2 million yuan.

With the same light, why was the price gap between domestic and foreign prices so large at that time? "The technology of our laboratory is not worse than that of foreign countries, but the road to marketization has not been opened." said Jiangang Wang , general manager of the precision equipment group of Wuhan HGlaser Engineering Co., Ltd. (HGlaser for short).

As another major invention after atomic energy, computers, and semiconductors, lasers are called "the fastest knife", "the most accurate ruler" and "the brightest light". They can be widely used in industrial production, communication, information processing, etc. field. However, domestic laser technology was mainly used in laboratories and a small amount of manufacturing at that time, and didn’t reach to be promoted to the application market.

Laser industry began to develop in 1980s.

In the 1990s, the state proposed the coordinated development of production, education and research, and it was necessary to transform scientific research results into productivity. Under such a circumstance, HG Laser was restructured from the Engineering Research Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and face to market-oriented development.

Laser has gone through 30 years Ups and downs. Catch the opportunity and gain the upper hand.

The research of laser technology in China started almost at the same time as in US.

In 1960, foreign countries invented the world's first laser; the following year, China's first ruby laser was also born, and applications were also explored. In 1960s, domestic laser technology had a small number of applications in laser punching, medical equipment, and distance measurement, but it was only a small amount of scattered research and development, and the pace of industrialization was slow.

in 1980s, China has shifted to a stage where economic construction is the mainstay, and laser technology applications have begun to be focused. At that time, laser technology attracted much attention in a number of national strategic technological plans. Among the seven major areas of the "863" program, laser technology and optical electronics technology play an important role.

After 30 years development, the domestic laser industry has ushered in a golden decade of development.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology established the laser major in 1971, and its laser engineering research has been keeping pace with international counterparts. The National Engineering Research Center for Laser Processing was established in Huazhong University of Science and Technology. In 1999, under the guidance of the National Development and Reform Commission, HG Laser was restructured from the school’s engineering research center and start to develop towards the market.

When HG Laser was restructured, lasers had already been used in foreign industrial, and china’s laser industry had a long way to go. Data shows that in recent years, 52% of the US GDP is related to the laser industry, Germany accounts for 42% of the GDP, while it was only about 10% in China.

It is understood that the large-scale manufacturing industries of major European and American countries, such as machinery, automobiles, aviation, shipbuilding, electronics and other industries, have basically completed the upgrading of traditional processes with laser processing technology, and have entered the "optical processing" era.

In fact, the domestic manufacturing industry is very eager for the introduction of laser technology. For example, a pipe cutting enterprise in the equipment manufacturing industry mostly used traditional cutting methods earlier. Due to the different lengths of pipes, manual measurement, positioning, polishing, and loading and unloading are required. Only one line requires more than ten workers. This directly leads to high labor costs and insufficient production capacity to meet market demand. The introduction of laser technology has improved its cost reduction and efficiency enhancement.

With the continuous development of the manufacturing industry, the marketization of China's laser industry began to accelerate in 2000. The laser industry led by HGlaser has carried out a series of overseas acquisitions, talent introduction, core technology development and other actions, constantly breaking through technical barriers and seizing the international market share.

Double innovation of technology and equipment, marching into multiple industries

Laser processing is a non-contact processing, and the energy and moving speed of the laser beam can be adjusted freely, which is convenient for achieving various processing purposes. In addition, laser processing can handle a variety of complex processing environments, and has the advantages of high production efficiency, reliable quality, and good economic benefits, which means that laser industry has a broad stage to show its strengths.

HGlaser always hold the duty“For Higher glory in manufacturing”.Give full play to the leading position in the field of industrial lasers and the advantages of the entire industry chain, and comprehensively deploy laser intelligent equipment, automation and intelligent manufacturing. "Jiangang Wang said to Major Powers.

HGaser leading products cover full power laser cutting series, laser welding series, laser marking series, laser heat treatment system series equipment and various lasers. Products are widely used in steel metallurgy, automobiles and parts, aerospace, military electronics, precision Instruments, machinery manufacturing, 3C electronics, consumer goods, display panels, semiconductors, new energy and other industries.

Due to the large span of downstream applications, the requirements of laser processing for materials in different fields are not the same.

For laser processing enterprises, it is necessary to know the influence of different material dimensions of laser processing technology. "Laser processing can achieve the present achievements because the practitioners in the laser industry are constantly breaking through themselves, not only in laser technology, but also in material processing equipment."

Jiangang Wang points out that HGlaser has recently developed many laser processing equipment for different materials in terms of laser micro nano processing technology,  such as fully automatic laser drilling machine for PCB, sapphire ultra fast laser precision cutting and drilling machine for brittle materials, and panel semiconductor wafer cutting machine.

As one of the most advanced manufacturing and processing technologies in the world today, with the expansion of the scope of application, the laser industry is becoming more and more "popular" from a "niche" market. At present, HGlaser products cover a wide range of fields, and can provide overall solutions for 3C, 5G, automotive, sheet metal/shipping and other industries.

According to the reports, with the development of my country's laser application field and the increase in laser application , it is estimated that the overall market size of  Chinese laser industry will reach 430.1 billion yuan in 2024.

Strengthen the effect of alliance between giants and create a new generation of laser intelligent manufacturing industry system

Opportunities are always accompanied by challenges. Smelling business opportunities, many companies are also actively participating in this blue ocean. In 2019 alone,China has 6 laser companies listed. There are still many laser companies waiting to be listed in 2020.

The development of the laser industry has accelerated, and the pattern has also changed.

At present, the alliance between giants effect of the laser industry is becoming more and more obvious. on the one hand,Leading companies have joined forces to extend the supply chain and acquire parts and components companies,on the other hand, work with customers to strengthen and consolidate the head effect; At the same time, the pace of international integration is accelerating, and there are also many cases of domestic companies acquiring foreign companies Too many to mention.

Some "small and efficient" laser companies have also gradually gone public, and the problem of development funds has been solved by listing. At the same time, some brand customers have participated in laser companies to enhance their development momentum.

In addition, the laser industry has begun to appear as cross-border counterparts, who are trying to acquire companies that apply laser processing to extend their industrial chain to the field of laser processing.

But for companies, the age of relying on resources to win has gone. Nowadays, when resources are becoming more equal, only by doing a good job in products, addressing customer needs, and enhancing brand influence, can companies become better and better. "Under the intense competition, HGlaser has a clear understanding of consolidating brand competitiveness. For any industry, controlling the quality of products and services is the way to win, and HGlaser is no exception.

Jiangang Wang believes that good product quality must first be guaranteed by a complete product development system. Therefore, HGlaser is guided by market demand and customer recognition to build good products and form a rapid production mechanism for VRM products. "After we introduce IPD (integrated product) development this year, we will improve research and development efficiency."

Another layer of guarantee for product quality is the guarantee of strong R&D resources. HGlaser has a robust "laser + intelligent manufacturing" production system and has formed a "supplier + product line + technology research institute + external customer/academic research and development resources" "Multi-level R&D resource cluster. In addition, six national talent platforms, including the National Engineering Research Center of Laser Processing, the State Key Laboratory of Lasers, and the National Enterprise Technology Center, also provide strong technical support for HGlaser research and development in frontier high-end markets and industry applications.

With the rapid development of the domestic manufacturing industry, HGlaser's product structure has also been continuously upgraded from a single laser processing machine in the past to an intelligent laser processing system, and then to the mature fully automatic production line at this stage. Nowadays, HGlaser is vigorously developing a new generation of laser intelligent manufacturing solutions. Jiangang Wang told "Materials for Great Nations" that in the future, the development of the laser manufacturing market must be an intelligent and systematic overall solution.

In 2019, HGTECH officially established the intelligent manufacturing business headquarters, which is geared to intelligent manufacturing related industries such as bridge manufacturing, construction machinery, military industry, shipbuilding, aerospace, 3C electronics, 5G communications, new energy, and daily consumer goods, giving full play to superiority in laser processing equipment, system integration and solutions, which are intended to strengthen the core technology integration and system linkage of intelligent manufacturing industry, and develop a new integrated industrial system with independent intellectual property rights.