Billion InYear Nothing To Sneeze At

1 Billion In 2011 Year Nothing To Sneeze At<br /><br />Laser cutting is a little known aspect of manufacturing that is growing considerably for small business owners and urban manufacturers. With 2011 bringing in $7.1 Billion and $7.3 Billion forecast in 2012, the overall laser industry is still looking at a strong year of sales, especially in this economy.<br /><br />Update/Clarification: The laser systems industry includes laser cutting, but laser cutters is a smaller subset of the overall $7B laser industry. The full report from Industrial Laser Solutions for Manufacturing referenced below shows $7.6 Billion as the forecasted 2012 global sales for the entire industry and $7.2B for 2011. I do not have access to this report and updated it based on an email from Mr. Belforte.<br /><br />Lasers are one of the coolest technologies on the planet, in my humble opinion. Until recently, I thought they were largely only in the hands of scientists, doctors eye surgeries, and other specialized technology types. Much of the billions in this statistic are made up of large systems for large manufacturers, but many maker companies know the value of a laser cutter or laser engraver. They are far more accessible and as part of a project Epilog Laser has loaned us one for a few months. We are in the midst of making things with it and learning a ton about laser cutting and engraving.<br /><br />For our Kitsap Mini Maker Faire earlier this month, we created lots of little boxes and gave them away to kids with our logo and website on the bottom. We used 3mm MDF wood compressed sawdust, more or less and it worked great. We did a workshop for area teens and let them custom design various materials like acrylic and MDF. See more below on the free app we used.<br /><br />The above photo is the Epilog Legend Mini 24; 50 watt version. It is one powerful machine. Epilog Laser is a Made in the USA manufacturer based in Golden, Colorado, manufacturing desktop CO2 lasers and FiberMark Ytterbium Fiber Laser lasers.<br /><br />One of the most popular users of Epilog Lasers are woodworkers who want to create an awards or engraving business, but it is also used by signage companies, mom and pop trophy shops, government agencies and large corporations. Increasingly these laser cutters are purchased by makers and urban manufacturers who want to design and create their own products.<br /><br />If youve thought about starting a small business, there is a growing need for service bureaus. In my local Seattle area, I know of only one and it is very popular: Metrix:CreateSpace. They recently purchased a larger laser cutter to keep up with demand. The owner has done a great job of educating makers on what is possible with a laser.<br /><br />If youve been on Thingiverse or Ponoko, you have seen or downloaded project files that you can cut or engrave. Even though Thingiverse is more popular in the 3D printing world, it offers a number of laser cutting and laser engraving projects.<br /><br />Whats cool about a laser system?<br /><br />Lets say you have an Arduino microcontroller and youre putting a specific shield on it, but you want it in more than a hacked up cardboard box or mint tin. You want something out of wood or acrylic. I recommend you use my new favorite website for designing a box from Rahulbotics. This little app lets you enter the dimension of your box/case and churns out a printable or cut able PDF file. Rahulbotics has a photo slideshow of other boxes created with its free tool. You then take that file into<br /><br />In one of the best summaries Ive found, David Belforte explains how the laser industry is growing in 2012 or not in various sectors here on Industrial Laser Solutions for Manufacturing. the steel industry, we have settled on a 5% growth in laser revenues and a 4% growth in laser system revenues for 2012. We think these numbers are achievable given the current status quo of the industrial markets. We see a strong first quarter followed by a slowing in the second half of 2012 with the year ending on a modest growth. We keep trying this forecast on everyone we interact with and have yet to find any violent disagreement. A low double digit growth year on top of a record year is not all that bad. David A. Belforte, editor in chief of Industrial Laser Solutions for Manufacturing.<br /><br />Laser cutting systems are growing in popularity and awareness for smaller companies. If you have wanted to prototype your own creations, a laser cutter may help. If you dont want to purchase one, you could join an area makerspace or pay a service bureau like Ponoko to make something for you.<br /><br />Please share some of your designs or stories if youve used a laser cutter or created a unique design with one. Id love to hear about it as Im planning to share some of my experiences with laser cutting in a short series this summer. You also can follow me on Twitter to keep up with maker and inventor sorts of news.<br /><br />Last year I launched a line of laser cut jewelry using Ponoko and could not be more happy with the results! Their customer service was instrumental in my beginning stages. At first I was intimidated by the idea of designing and sending things off into cyber space, but then I took their online training course. Having an opportunity to connect with their representative, Josh, and ask questions through the live video chat gave me the confidence to get started. They even looked over my initial designs and consulted with me on what modifications I should make to ensure my designs came out the way I wanted. Currently I write for Small Business Trends and Yahoo! SMB. In the past, I have put pen to paper for the Wall Street Journal, Make, Sports Afield, the Pittsburgh Business Times and many others. I am passionate about technology and work to serve tech businesses and startups. Ping me at Q4Sales at Gmail and put Forbes in the subject line. You can circle me on Google+. You can follow my work on Twitter and at the TechBizTalk link below