Dr. Peter Wirth is Executive Chairman of the Board at the specialist laser company Rofin-Sinar. He likes traveling, classical music, books, culture and is enthusiastic about the fascinating possibilities of light as a natural raw material. 

The German-US company Rofin-Sinar Technologies Inc. develops, manufactures and markets laser beam sources and laser-based system solutions for industrial materials processing. It is currently one of the leading companies pioneering this technology on the world market.
The company has been in existence for over 30 years and has been listed on the stock market for the last 10 years. How long have you been at Rofin Sinar and what were you doing before that?

Dr. Peter Wirth: I have been at Rofin for almost 29 years and before that I worked for a mechanical engineering firm in Baden-Würtemberg.

Rofin-Sinar has just recorded record sales growth of 21% for the 1st Quarter 2008. How is this distributed across the macro - and micro applications and in which countries are you seeing the highest growth rates. Can the number of orders received keep pace with the growth rates? In other words, are you expecting further increases in order this year?

Dr. Peter Wirth: Our sales are divided into 45% macro and 47% in marking and micro, the remaining sales are for components. Market studies suggest there is nothing to prevent further potential increases. Our analysts take the same view.

How important is the Asian region, in particular China, for your company. China is also seeing spectacular growth in the area of laser technology and photonics?

Dr. Peter Wirth: China is the country in which we have achieved the highest sales growth over the last few years. Many of our customers now have production facilities in China so we obviously need to have our own company there as well.

How do you guard against potential infringement of intellectual property in China?

Dr. Peter Wirth: In China we prefer to work with our own company and employees, otherwise we make efforts to only supply products to China that are not easy to copy as they require very special parts from our suppliers who have concluded an exclusivity agreement with us. We also try to be always one step ahead of the game with our developments.  

You have been a member of the specialist panel of LASER World of PHOTONICS for many years. What motivates you to take on such a role when your time is clearly limited?

Dr. Peter Wirth: As I feel that laser material processing is a very important technology for the future, I would like to help spread this technology faster and more widely and further emphasize the significance of lasers for manufacturing. LASER World of PHOTONICS is important because of its size and focus. This means it is able to attract many visitors, particularly from abroad.

Rofin Sinar is a major exhibitor at LASER World of PHOTONICS. How do you see the trade fair developing in future? Do you think it has advantages over other trade fairs?

Dr. Peter Wirth: I am glad that the trade fair has become more focused on industrial applications over the last few years and has therefore been able to address new groups of visitors, to grow and become more significant. That is surely because all manufacturers of lasers and opto-electronic products are very interested in industrial applications.

You recently took over the fiber manufacturer Nufern. Disk, fiber, CO2 - is Rofin going even more towards fiber-optic lasers? What are the current trend topics in laser technology?

Dr. Peter Wirth: Everyone is talking about fiber-optic lasers at the moment. Although they are certainly not suitable for all possible applications we are always trying to offer our customers the full range of laser technologies for materials processing. We have always tried to do that in the past and as our sales growth shows, this business model has proved itself and has paid off.

Thank you for the interview.