Laser manufacturer eyes future markets

Paradigm Lasers Inc., a small Spokane Valley (Washington) laser system designer and manufacturer, says it is developing several new commercial lasers and hopes to start producing some of them next year.

The company, which moved from East Rochester, NY, in September, employs four people and leases a 5000-sq-ft space. Next year, the company plans to hire about 15 people, says company President Tim Irwin, who owns Paradigm with his wife Judith and a small number of investors.

Paradigm, which has been in business since 1992, produces and sells made-to-order lasers that serve in a variety of applications, including cutting devices and sensors, and are incorporated into other companies' products.

"We plan to have an industrial laser for welding on the market in the second quarter of next year," Irwin says. "We have a lot of irons in the fire at once." The company develops and manufactures advanced diode-pumped solid-state laser systems.