In this column, I interview Wolfgang Gries, founder and CEO of DirectPhotonics (Berlin, Germany), a maker of ultra-high-brightness direct-diode laser solutions for materials processing, about his experience starting a company.
Milton Chang: Congratulations for successfully starting another company. What does DirectPhotonics make?
Wolfgang Gries:We provide kilowatt lasers in the 900 nm range for macro-material processing such as cutting and welding, as well as lower power systems from 793 to 1570 nm for specialized applications, such as eye-safe lasers in the 1500 nm region.
MC: I thought fiber lasers dominate industrial applications. So, what is your niche and what are your competitive advantages?
WG: We believe that direct-diode laser technology can build on the acceptanceof fiber lasers towards becoming a commodity in industrial manufacturing to enable advanced manufacturing processes. We can replace fiber lasers in an increasing number of applications. Our lasers are highly efficient, compact, reliable, and easily serviceable in a system. Our technology is a quantum leap in brightness over existing diode laser systems. We can provide a beam with 7.5 beam parameter product (BPP) sufficient for cutting. With further improvements of our technology and of the diodes themselves, we see us reaching the same spot size as fiber lasers in the near future.
Our target customers are system integrators for cutting and welding manufacturing systems. We provide flexible solutions on various customized integration levels and private labeling. We are aiming to increase value-add for the customer on the optical engine as well as service following our “DirectPhotonics Inside” Strategy.
MC: Cute! I hope Intel doesn’t come after you on copyright…just kidding. Tell us more about the serviceability.
WG: Our system can also be easily integrated into a machine tool. Our lasers are in 500 W modules. When one laser is not working, all you have to do is to plug in another module, which takes minutes. For fiber laser systems, you would need a factory service person to disassemble and replace the entire laser. Ease of maintenance or serviceability is particularly important to end users.
MC: What about cost comparison?
WG:The selling price is comparable with fiber lasers at this point in time, but our cost is expected to drop with volume purchase. Our approach is scaling single-emitter diodes to achieve performance. The construction of our laser is simple, and we automate by using pick-and-place machines that are designed and built in-house. The benefit of automation is reproducibility, scalability, reliability, and low cost. That also enables us to use the best laser diodes on the market at any given time.
MC: Sounds like some sort of beam combiner to get high power. How do you get high brightness?
WG: We use optical stacking and dense spectral combination. We stack multiple single emitters in the fast axis with a monolithic slow axis collimator (SAC) array to build individual modules. We then stabilize and narrow the wavelength of each module with volume Bragg gratings (VBG). This allows us to use dense wavelength combination to overlap the beams of individual modules. So we generate a high-quality, high-brightness, high-intensity coherent beam that has low divergence. This is a proprietary technology licensed exclusively from the Fraunhofer Institute.
MC: You sold your last company to Spectra-Physics and worked for SP, and you and all your executives at DirectPhotonics were working in the U.S.—why did you start your company in Berlin?
WG:We actually incorporated in California in 2011 and moved to Berlin because our first round of financing came from a private investor in Berlin. Here, we also have governmental and EU development program funding. Where we are located now has 400 companies in close proximity, including Jenoptik. We pay low rent for a beautiful building built on a site that used to be an airport and then was an East German research center. That said, we do intend to establish a research and marketing arm in the Silicon Valley.
MC: How do you contrast starting business in Berlin vs. Silicon Valley?WG: We all know that Silicon Valley has much to offer, but is expensive in rent, salary, and the cost of living. Here, we are in close proximity to the manufacturing industry and have synergy through close collaboration with universities, the Fraunhofer Institutes, and other organizations. Joint funding and teaming with partners along different parts of the value chain are common practice here.
Raising money for our kind of product is not easy in Silicon Valley in spite of having many VC firms. First-round VC investment here is mainly from private investors, and there is lots of money from state, federal, and EU funding agencies focusing on industrial research and product development.
In terms of quality employees, Germany offers a highly skilled and stable workforce. So we have no difficulty in recruiting and keeping qualified workers. I also feel good about the down-to-earth acumen of doing business development here instead of the emphasis on high-flying, big ideas.
MC: Where are most of your customers?
WG: Germany, of course, and in the U.S., Asia, Japan, and China.
MC: I can only think of Cincinnati Machines here in the U.S. when it comes to big machine tools.
WG: Cincinnati makes cutting systems, but there are many system integrators making welding systems for custom applications. To them, a laser is just a subsystem they buy along with robots. There are a lot of these systems in the automotive industry, and these companies also ship systems to China for welding battery parts, for example. We are surprised to find a large number of job shops producing all kinds of products; for example, I walked into a nondescript building in the Midwest and found 150 laser systems cranking out stents and a shop in Carson City, NV, using many kilowatt CO2 lasers for repairing or rebuilding turbine blades using homebrewed machines.
MC: Any entrepreneurship insight to share with our readers?
WG: Having successfully started two companies from university spinoff and management buyout, it is clear to me that market comes first, technology right after, and the company must be founded under the umbrella of a careful planned financial structure. And the management must have the right amount of entrepreneurial spirit. Always “Think Different”!
Milton Chang
MILTON CHANG of Incubic Management was president of Newport and New Focus. He is currently director of mBio Diagnostics and Aurrion; a trustee of Caltech; a member of the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies; and serves on advisory boards and mentors entrepreneurs. Chang is a Fellow of IEEE, OSA, and LIA. Direct your business, management, and career questions to him at [email protected], and check out his book Toward Entrepreneurship at www.miltonchang.com.