In 1986, LASER COMPONENTS opened its first in-house production facility and broke early on from its roots as a pure distribution business. Over the years, more and more production facilities have been added, and the collaboration between them has become closer and closer. Our chief technology officer, Dr. Lars Mechold (LM), who has been a member of management since 2012, oversees the successful coordination. He is surrounded by a motivated team that promotes corporate research and development.
LC: Dr. Mechold, how long has LASER COMPONENTS had its own R&D department?
LM: The development of new products began with in-house production in 1986. For a long time, projects were overseen in the individual departments. Since this past year, R&D has been managed centrally. This has opened the door to more synergy and, above all, better implementation of interdepartmental developments.
LC: Was there a specific reason for this change?
LM: Concretely, the development of the single photon counter COUNT® prompted this change. This product was created in a very short amount of time. The heart of this product, the detector, is provided by the LASER COMPONENTS Detector Group in the U.S.A. and the electronic assembly and fiber coupling by our German departments. As a result of our in-house coating design on the integrated lens, the coupling efficiency in particular was improved by 8%.
LC: Was this also the reason for the establishment of a central coordinator position?
LM: Absolutely. The rapid speed of development surprised even us. The potential behind interdepartmental collaboration became more and more apparent.
LC: How do you plan to utilize this potential?
LM: We are currently working on eleven internal and customer-driven development projects that involve our foreign production facilities in the U.S.A. and Canada to some extent. The developers meet once a week to discuss the status of the projects and current issues. We also open these meetings up to the students who are participating in internships or preparing their bachelor’s or master’s thesis.
We continue to see the positive effect this communication has among our creative employees.
LC: How did you adjust so quickly to your new role as CTO?
LM: Following my time as a plasma physicist, I worked for eleven years as production manager at LASER COMPONENTS. During that time, I was responsible for the introduction of new products that ultimately landed in production. I have always been able to rely on all the technologies available.
LC: Who is a part of your team?
LM: We have five employees in R&D, three of them are engineers and the other two are physicists. All of our engineers wrote their graduate, Bachelor’s, or Master’s thesis in house. Each team member has its own specialized area of expertise – from electronics to mechanical and optical design to measurement-based implementation.
LC: Have you already begun to see success in working with this cross-disciplinary team?
LM: Yes. In fact, we have just recently completed a number of development projects successfully. This includes a fiber coupler for CO2 lasers, a digital control for laser modules, the enhancement of our IBS coatings to cover the UV range, and new mounts for laser modules.
LC: How do you come up with concrete product ideas?
LM: Our product engineers remain in close contact with our customers. If our customers reach the limits of feasibility when implementing standard components, we look for concrete solutions.
LC: Let’s have a look at the future for a moment. What do you have planned for the years to come?
LM: New ideas will shape my work in the future.
For one, we will continue to optimize internal technical communication lines, which will include regular internal meetings and business travel to the external LC production facilities. We will collaborate more closely and know what expertise each department brings to the table. This is what a medium-sized family enterprise is all about and what sets us apart from large corporations.
For another, we will improve contact to external cooperation partners, which will include participation in conferences and workshops in different disciplines. We will consistently take advantage of the opportunities that are out there. In addition to customer projects, we will also partake in projects with research institutes and universities that yield captivating technologies.
It is quite exciting to return to plasma physics and yet still apply the experience I have gained over the past few years to the implementation of new product ideas.
These products are manufactured directly at LASER COMPONENTS.
