2006 - Lotus Lasers
As with most modern industries we found our attention drawn to Far Eastern manufacturing sources. We travelled many thousands of miles over several trips visiting well over a dozen major laser technology manufacturers. While all of them had low cost machines most of them did not have, in our opinion, a solid technology base to meet our minimum standards so we continued our search. Eventually we found two companies of a substantial size that had the manufacturing capability to build low cost machines to our specification of both C02 and Nd:YAG systems.
To differentiate the technologies built with differing priorities we decided to establish a separate brand identity for the low cost machines. This brand is Lotus Laser Systems.
Almost all Far Eastern C02 laser systems use what is known as a glass tube. The glass tube is high power for an exceptionally low cost but after testing the technology we found issues with performance, safety and reliability that we felt would not be good enough for UK users even of a low demand. Therefore, uniquely we integrated Synrad (as used by Trotec) CO2 laser technology to a Far Eastern manufactured system. The result is a very capable machine with very good output quality.
For Nd:YAG laser technology, aside from the scanning head, our factory manufactures the majority of the system and even the diode packs themselves. This affords massive cost savings and therefore we are able to supply YAG lasers to prices often half that of the usual price of a system manufactured within Europe.