As of the end of 2018, Industrial Laser Solutions has subscribers located in 181 countries, predominately in North America, Asia, and Europe, as would be expected since these regions include countries with well-established or rapidly developing advanced manufacturing sectors. And, to nobody's surprise, this is where industrial lasers shine (pardon the pun), so ILS's popularity is, to a degree, a given.
As the editor-in-chief, I am gratified that we are the go-to publication for the latest and most interesting news on applications for industrial lasers in manufacturing—in case you missed it, it's in the publication's name.
What I find intriguing is that the rest of ILS' demographics—those countries with only a few dozen or less readers—have on more than one occasion over the years turned up with either an intriguing application or a very interesting use for a widely adopted process. Case in point—back a few years ago, I wrote an ILS Update item about a jeans manufacturer in Mauritius who used CO2 lasers to engrave designs in women's jeans. In a phone interview with him, he told me if a product wasn’t advertised in ILS, he wouldn't buy it. At that time, he was the only ILS subscriber on the island and, according to my audience development manager, still is (if he is reading this, send me an email and give me a progress report).
I got in the habit, when bragging about ILS's global readership, to facetiously comment on having readers in Zimbabwe (only because that country starts with a Z and had a very few ILS readers)—a practice I stopped when my audience development manager told me we now had two-dozen subscribers in that rapidly developing country.
I just read in Railways Africa that Sawpower in Harare, Zimbabwe recently took delivery of a Bystronic multikilowatt fiber laser cutting system complete with a nitrogen gas generator—the first laser sheet metal processor, of any description, delivered in that country. Needless to say, I'm checking to see if the company is an ILS subscriber and if ILS played any role in that decision.
This prompts me to use this commentary for a little reality check. If you are the one of only a few ILS subscribers in Angola, Brunei, Cambodia, Central African Republic, French Polynesia, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macao, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Niger, Paraguay, Surinam, Tahiti, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, or Vanuatu, send me an email at [email protected], and let me know your industrial laser interest. Who knows—you, too, may end up profiled in ILS.