How should the trend of fiber lasers develop?

How should the trend of fiber lasers develop?

In recent years, the demand for laser processing in China has grown rapidly, and fiber lasers have become the most widely used light source, driving the growth of related manufacturers. At the same time, this market has about 20 manufacturers, and the competition is fierce.

As the price war gradually comes to an end, the fiber laser market pattern is basically finalized. Major manufacturers are still struggling to compete for continuous fiber laser orders and customers, while some small and medium-sized manufacturers are striving to expand the application of specific products and specific industries. In terms of customization Seek living space and opportunity. In 2019, the global fiber laser market scale was approximately RMB 16 billion, of which more than RMB 9 billion was sold in China. In 2020, China's fiber laser market is estimated to be close to 10 billion yuan.

The application demand of fiber lasers is still in the growth stage. How to seize the opportunity in the face of industry growth opportunities and occupy as much market share as possible is a problem that every company thinks about. Regarding the development trend of fiber lasers, this magazine interviewed professionals from several related manufacturers and asked their views.

1.

Talking about the market and the impact of the epidemic

Chuangxin Laser ranks third in the domestic fiber laser market share. The company's revenue in 2019 exceeded 1 billion yuan, and its market share exceeded 11%. The company’s marketing director Zeng Jianfeng mentioned: Chuangxin started from the production of components, and vertical integration is crucial for the entire laser production. At present, 98% of our components are self-produced or localized. This is one of the biggest advantages of Chuangxin.

Due to the epidemic this year, major companies on the application side have been affected, but the impact on Chuangxin is controllable. The company still hopes to move towards more market shares. Chuangxin Laser's key product development this year is 10,000-watt fiber lasers. Chuangxin is leading the way in this regard. It is understood that Chuangxin accounts for the largest number of installed 10,000-watt lasers nationwide. Our company has a greater say in the development and market of Wanwa products.

Zeng Jianfeng said: "From last year to this year, our main shipment of 10,000 watt lasers is 12KW, and the power will increase in the future. In the near future, our 20KW products have been installed and applied. We will have more and higher power lasers. We will also showcase the product launch in due course. The advancement of the 10,000-watt laser has brought new changes to the process and brought solutions for the processing of high-gloss, high-speed, and thicker plates."

Another listed laser company, JPT Optoelectronics, operates optical communication products, fiber lasers and intelligent manufacturing equipment. The company’s sales director He Chufeng told this journal: Among domestic laser manufacturers, our company should be the most comprehensive one, including fiber lasers, solid-state lasers, and continuous-wave lasers. Continuous light laser is a key direction of our later development.

In the early years, Jeput was well-known in the industry for MOPA pulsed fiber lasers. This year, it has made great progress in continuous fiber lasers, and its shipment volume has doubled compared with last year.

Regarding the impact of the epidemic, He Chufeng said that this is not only a challenge facing the laser industry, but also the national manufacturing industry. Especially the decline in foreign trade is a big challenge. I suggest that all companies still report to the group for warmth and strengthen cooperation with each other.

Shanghai Guanghui Laser was founded by a Chinese American, mainly engaged in high-brightness single-mode continuous fiber lasers. It is also the first company in China to produce single-fiber single-mode 3KW products with a core diameter of 20μm. Low-power single-mode lasers can be used in lithium battery welding for various applications. For high-power products, they can currently achieve 10,000 watts and 20,000 watts, and they can do a lot of high-power metal cutting.

Lu Xiangzhi, head of Guanghui Laser Shenzhen Branch, said: The epidemic is a catalyst for the development of the laser industry. If it is a rising company, there will be a significant increase this year. And some companies that have encountered problems and have poor internal management and management will accelerate their decline when the epidemic comes. These problem companies may have a buffer period of one or two years, but after the outbreak of the epidemic, some companies can no longer support them.

For our company, it is an opportunity to go to a higher level. The current impact is not great. Driven by new applications, our production and shipments are still busy.

Another rising star Hunan Dake Laser Co., Ltd. was established in 2017. It has about 20 years of experience in the research of high-brightness single-mode fiber lasers. The company is mainly engaged in scientific research and military products, and industrial manufacturing products.

Yan Junzhu, marketing director of Dake Laser, said: “Our industrial lasers are inevitably affected due to the manufacturing environment, but the rigid demand for scientific research lasers has not been affected. At present, the company still achieved good results in the first half of the year. Performance growth."

2.

Talking about the development trend of fiber laser

Speaking of the development trend of fiber lasers, many people simply summarize it as high power, high beam quality, localized substitution, etc. Here, Zeng Jianfeng of Chuangxin Laser gave us a good summary:

The first trend is that domestic substitution will accelerate. The original monopoly of imported laser products in most domestic markets has been broken in recent years, and the replacement of overseas products by domestic lasers will continue. Chuangxin Laser adheres to the concept of "science and technology benefiting the public" and hopes to make it affordable to everyone who wants to use lasers, so as to promote the popularization and application of lasers.

The second trend is to continue to improve in the direction of high power. Thicker plates, higher processing speeds, and better processing quality. In recent years, lasers have increased by one power level almost every year, and this trend will continue.

Another obvious thing is the application of precision laser processing and ultrafast lasers. Mainly in the processing of 3C, microelectronics, computers, mobile phones and other products.

Another one is the continuous expansion of the application-side industry. At present, Chuangxin’s lasers are mainly focused on metal cutting applications, that is, the processing of blanking. With the continuous expansion of applications and the development of new infrastructure, we are based on lasers and will be in process research Do more work to make the application of laser more extensive.

He Chufeng of JPT Optoelectronics puts more emphasis on the localization of high-end lasers. He believes: “Most of the current domestic laser applications are still at the middle and low-end levels. The future trend will definitely go to the high-end direction. Our experience in lasers It is relatively deep. For a long time, high-end laser applications have almost been occupied by foreign countries. I hope that our domestic companies can win some back in the future."

Yan Junzhu of Dake Laser puts more emphasis on market segments and specific applications. He believes that fiber lasers are currently in a Red Sea market, and the homogeneity competition is very fierce. Although Dake entered the market late, based on product characteristics and applications, Dake chose to avoid the highly competitive part, that is, metal cutting processing, and instead looked for some customized and special applications.

"I think that each manufacturer will do a good job in its own market segmentation, then the entire industry will have a good benign development. From the market point of view, the size of my country's fiber laser market was less than 10 billion last year, and this scale is still very large. There is a big room for development. At present, everyone should continue to make the cake bigger, and each manufacturer will have its own share," said Yan Junzhu.