International technology company Andritz (Graz, Austria) has acquired a 50.1% stake in Powerlase Photonics (Crawley, West Sussex, England), which specializes in picosecond and nanosecond high-energy, diode-pumped solid-state (DPSS) lasers. The company supplies international customers from the photovoltaic, microelectronics, automotive, and aerospace industries. The new company name is Andritz Powerlase, and it will be based in Crawley.

The agreement between the two companies will enable Powerlase to pursue its ambitious growth plans to be a key provider of high-power lasers for surface preparation, polishing, cleaning, ablating, and many other industrial applications, according to Young Kwon, managing director of Powerlase.

Andritz Powerlase is introducing the Vulcan platform, which features a pulsed laser system for high-volume materials processing applications such as removing aluminum silicon coatings on tailored blanks, surface polishing and hardening of metals, and cutting/drilling glass and carbon fiber-reinforced plastics.

This acquisition complements Andritz's metals business area's product portfolio. Andritz Soutec (Neftenbach, Switzerland) has been using high-energy lasers from Powerlase for some time in its globally tried and tested ablation systems for removing coatings from metal—for example, in producing tailored welded blanks in the automotive industry.