An Oxfordshire start-up company offers an extensive range of lasers for all types of subcontract laser marking.
ES Precision offers laser processing to industries such as medical device, Formula 1, aerospace, electronics and general engineering.
The business has got off to a good start, says Managing Director Tim Millard, with its six staff busy running jobs on the eight laser workstations at the company’s premises at Kingston Business Park between Oxford and Swindon.
“Turnover for the first quarter is well ahead of expectations and we’re going to go into the Christmas break with a very solid start,” he said.
“We’ve taken on some part-time staff locally in addition to our six permanent staff to meet the demand peaks. We’ve met delivery expectations 100% so far as a result, which is crucial when a new company is building a reputation.”
The lasers include a 200W CO2 galvo-delivered source which can drill and cut organic materials at very high speed. There is also a lower power CO2 laser with automatic reel-to-reel feeding which is used to mark label data onto any shape label required (because the laser also cuts the label profile – no kiss-cutting dies required). Labels are tamper-evident, high temperature and weather-resistant, so customers use them for tracking and traceability as well as outside use.
They can have incrementing barcodes, ID Matrices or human-readable characters and cannot be removed without destroying. Most people will have seen the material on their cars – such laser-marked black labels are ubiquitous showing fuel type by the petrol fill-up cap and tyre pressure on the door interior.
“We’ve also got UV, fibre and Vanadate lasers with galvo delivery, so that we can optimise marks on virtually all materials – all metals, most plastics as well as coated materials” explained Tim.
“We have a tool room to fabricate fixtures so that repeat customers are guaranteed consistent results. The business model needs customers who have a regular permanent identification or decorative need for their products, so ensuring every customer is happy with our service is of course essential.”
ES Precision still has capacity to take on more work and can work with volume customers on a development and prototype contract basis to get the right sort of finish on components.