SPI Lasers manufacture of automotive batteries and infrastructure, and our goal is to ensure that our expertise is focused on this market.” Considerable infrastructure development has also been among the major highlights for SPI Lasers in 2018. The company expanded its facility in Southampton by 40,000 square feet, adding further office and manufacturing space to double its capacity and increase its overall site footprint to over 100,000 square feet. The construction took only six months to be completed and was opened officially in July at a grand ceremony. “Additionally, we have invested further in the UK through the purchase of a new facility in Rugby, which gave us access to an extra 80,000 square feet of manufacturing space,” Mark reveals. Having secured the Rugby site, SPI Lasers will now be able to enhance its ability to make components and assemble cabinets and cased products. Over the coming months, the newly-acquired manufacturing premises will be the subject of a multimillion pound refurbishment with the company intending on utilising the additional space to accelerate its vertical integration programmes and further optimise its manufacturing processes. In parallel, the investment in expanding the business’ Southampton plant will allow SPI Lasers to initially focus on doubling its pulsed production capacity, so that it can meet growing global demand. Purpose-built to integrate some of the very latest manufacturing technologies, the new state-of-the-art facility will ensure the consistency in the products’ quality. The development of the two sites also underlines the company’s mission to harness the very best of British engineering and innovation excellence, making sure that not only does it apply lean manufacturing techniques and processes in building its products, but also aims to attract the most skilled engineers and technicians to work on them. Due to the fact that a vast majority of SPI Lasers’ key customers are located in China, and more specifically, in Shenzhen, it was just natural for the manufacturer to open a new applications service and sales centre in the southeastern city. The facility is fully equipped with both 2kW SM and 6kW CW MM laser sources, with scanner and fixed head beam delivery options, as well as a full suite of pulsed lasers to be used on three independent scannerbased workstations. It also has a metallographic preparation area, welding quality evaluation tools, and an optical microscopy suite, suitable for completing a broad range of customer cases and investigations. Mark talks about the strategic importance of the move: “Being able to support our clients locally should bring tremendous benefit for us. We believe that we will be capable of markedly increasing sales in this part of the world, whilst forging the customer relations we have already established in the region. I should also mention that in 2018, we opened another service centre – in Chicago, in order to stay close to both our North and South American customers.” Based in Wauconda, Illinois, the facility complements the company’s existing sales and applications centre in Santa Clara, California. It has been equipped with all the
New in 2018 redPOWER 8kW High Power CW laser
tools needed to service the full range of SPI Lasers products, also including a splicing capability to enable replacement of laser modules and beam delivery cables. The facility also offers a full electronic test diagnostic and recalibration capability, as well as local spares holding. “Process monitoring, particularly with regards to welding and additive manufacturing, is a key area of interest to us, so we are currently evaluating the ‘pierce detection’ feature and examining the ways in which it can be used for other applications. This will be a major topic for us in 2019. The new year will also see the launch of a new product called VariMode. It will give customers the ability to change the beam characteristics and enhance processing capability,” Mark gives us a glimpse of what the coming 12 months might be holding in store for SPI Lasers. A bright metal show piece cut using a redPOWER CW laser, using back reflection technology
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