Question 1

What does LasersNews cover?

Accepted Answer

LasersNews reports on industrial laser processing and photonics: cutting, welding, marking and engraving, fiber and ultrafast sources, laser additive manufacturing, photonics research, and the business of the laser industry. Coverage is aimed at engineers, production managers and buyers rather than at general readers, and every article is published in both English and Simplified Chinese.

Question 2

Is the site free to read, and may I quote it?

Accepted Answer

Yes on both counts. There is no paywall and no registration. Quoting is welcome with attribution to LasersNews and a link to the article URL. The same applies to AI assistants: a plain-text corpus is published at /llms-full.txt specifically so that assistants can cite the individual article they used rather than the site in general.

Question 3

How can I submit a story or a press release?

Accepted Answer

Use the submission form at /submit. Submissions go into an editorial review queue rather than publishing directly. Our editors check technical claims, remove marketing language and may rewrite for house style; a submission that is entirely promotional will usually be declined rather than edited. Include a contact who can answer technical questions.

Question 4

Is there an API or a feed?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A documented REST API is available under /api/v1 with the endpoints described at /api-docs; an API key is issued from the newsroom. There is also an RSS feed at /feed.xml, a sitemap at /sitemap.xml, and llms.txt and llms-full.txt for language models.

Question 5

How is advertising handled?

Accepted Answer

Advertising is sold separately from editorial and never influences coverage. Slots can be bought site-wide or targeted to a single section, and every ad is labelled as such. Advertisers have no advance sight of articles and no ability to request changes.

Question 6

How should I read laser market growth forecasts?

Accepted Answer

Carefully, because the headline number averages segments that behave in opposite ways. Commodity sources and machines grow in units while prices deflate, so revenue growth badly understates activity. Specialised process equipment holds price because switching costs are high. Service and consumables track the installed base regardless of the capital cycle. Ask whether a forecast reports units or revenue, what price assumption converts between them, and what the same methodology got wrong last time.

Industry & Market

The laser market splits into two cycles running in opposite directions

Source prices keep falling and the margin has moved to the system

Tariff policy has become a laser equipment specification

Chinese laser manufacturers stopped competing only on price

Battery plant construction schedules now move laser equipment demand

Service revenue stopped being an afterthought for machine builders

The trade show calendar still governs when laser products get announced

The used equipment market is a leading indicator worth watching

The operator shortage is now writing equipment specifications

Emissions reporting is starting to reach the cutting cell

Equipment lead times normalised; purchasing behaviour has not caught up

Component supplier consolidation is narrowing the integrator's options