'A little sunny and a little sad'

摘要

At a workshop on Optoelectronics in Scotland organized by the Scottish Enterprise group, I spoke on the subject of industrial laser materials processing—past, present, and future. First, I have to tell you that Scotland is one of my favorite places to visit. In preparing my remarks, I had occasion to review laser industry statistics accumulated since 1970. My best estimate is that in the 30-year history of this product sector, about 120,000 units were installed, worth about $6 billion. The majority of these installations happened from 1985 onwards, with solid double-digit growth occurring in the 1990s. The purpose of the exercise was to develop a base to extrapolate applications growth into the first decade of the new century.