By acquiring a 70 percent stake in Boston-based laser specialist WBC Photonics, Laserline is expanding its solution portfolio to include blue industrial diode lasers with particularly high beam quality. In addition to laser systems with CW output powers of currently up to 4 kW – currently the highest power level in the blue laser sector – the company now also offers lasers with very high focusability and beam qualities of 4 mm mrad and better.
Laserline has acquired 70 percent of the shares of the US laser specialist WBC Photonics, headquartered in Boston. Through this strategic acquisition, the German diode laser manufacturer is expanding its solution portfolio to include blue laser systems with particularly very high beam qualities of better than 4 mm mrad. This positions Laserline as a full-service provider for diode lasers in the blue wavelength range and covers a broad product spectrum from systems with high focusability to power levels in the multi-kW range.
Laserline GmbH, based in Mülheim-Kärlich near Koblenz, was founded in 1997. The company is a world leader in the development and manufacture of extremely efficient, modular diode laser systems with blue and infrared wavelengths. Laserline’s high-power diode lasers achieve output powers of up to 60 kW. Based on decades of experience, Laserline develops customized laser solutions for industrial applications. More than 7,500 high-power diode lasers are currently in operation around the world, demonstrating their performance in a wide variety of processes and applications. The laser technology specialist currently employs around 400 people and has international subsidiaries in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China, South Korea, and India.
WBC Photonics was founded through a management buyout of the former Panasonic subsidiary TeraDiode and produces high-power diode lasers in the NIR and blue wavelength spectrum. The high beam quality of the laser systems is achieved through emitter-based wavelength beam combining. The acquisition opens up new target markets for Laserline. The high focusability is important for applications in the field of additive manufacturing, welding, or cutting for example.
”The acquisition of WBC Photonics is a significant step on our path toward becoming the world’s leading supplier of blue diode lasers. It enables us to offer even more powerful and versatile solutions in the field of blue industrial diode lasers to our customers – from exceptionally high beam qualities to unmatched high-power classes worldwide,” says Dr. Christoph Ullmann, Managing Director of Laserline.
”Our new partnership with Laserline enables access to markets worldwide for high brightness blue lasers,” said Michael Deutsch, CEO of WBC Photonics. ”Together, we will become the world leader in blue diode laser technology.”
Jochen Hense and Andy Isgrig, Partners at Livingstone in Germany and the US, comment: “We are happy that we were mandated to support Laserline in this international transaction. This deal underscores our dedication to helping our clients’ international growth objectives through tailored services.”
Dr. Christoph Ullmann, Managing Director of Laserline, summarizes: “Livingstone has advised us as a typical German mid-cap company in a highly tailored way. Livingstone’s international Industrial Tech team from Chicago and Düsseldorf provided an enormous added value to us in this transaction through their local services both in the States and in Germany.”
The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
