LPKF Laser & Electronics

LPKF Laser & Electronics AG
legal form	Corporation
ISIN	DE0006450000
founding	1976
Seat	Garbsen , Germany
management	Götz M. Bendele, CEO
Number of employees	682 (2019)
sales	140 million euros (2019)
Branch	mechanical engineering
Website	www.lpkf.com
	As of December 31, 2019

The LPKF Laser & Electronics AG is an engineering company. The company develops and manufactures laser systems that are used, among other things, in the manufacture of electronic components.

LPKF is headquartered in Garbsen near Hanover. The company has a broad base with locations in Europe, Asia and North America and a total of 683 employees worldwide. The export share was around 90% in the 2017 financial year. The shares of LPKF AG are listed in the Prime Standard of the German stock exchange and are part of the SDAX and the TecDAX .

Company history

In 1976 LPKF was founded as a GmbH. The first products were circuit board plotters for structuring circuit boards - the device mills the circuit structure out of a base material in a negative process. The name LPKF was derived from the product circuit board copy router . In 1984 LPKF became active with the establishment of a branch in the USA. The company has been using lasers in industrial production since 1989. In 1991, the development of drive and control systems was transferred to the newly founded subsidiary LPKF Motion & Control GmbH (location: Suhl). In 1993 LPKF presented an industrial application of laser technology with a StencilLaser. Solder paste stencils (SMT stencils) for the electronics industry are manufactured with it. These stencils are required in the series production of SMT circuit boards. In 1998 the corporation was created through the conversion of the GmbH.

In 2003 she founded an application center for laser applications that deals with new forms of application of laser technology: It developed the 3D- MID technology for direct laser structuring to the point of series production. The application center was transferred to the subsidiary LaserMicronics GmbH (services for micro material processing).

The year 2005 saw the merger with LaserQuipment AG in the plastic welding division. This division has developed a patented hybrid welding process (laser transmission welding with the support of a heat field) and a process for laser hot caulking of thermoplastic rivet partners.

With the establishment of the subsidiary LPKF SolarQuipment in 2007, LPKF entered the thin-film solar cell production market . The company produces laser systems that structure large carrier materials into solar modules in a three-stage process .

In 2010 LPKF received the Hermes Award for the “LPKF Fusion3D” laser system.

On August 24, 2020, LPKF was included in the TecDAX , where the company replaces the insolvent Wirecard AG.

Business areas

LPKF has historically been a mechanical engineering company with precision technology. The current structure distinguishes the following business areas:

Printed circuit boards : production of prototype printed circuit boards; Structuring the circuit boards with circuit board plotters or laser systems, environmentally friendly processes for through-hole plating of circuit boards , solder mask, solder paste application and SMD assembly in the electronics laboratory.

Circuit board processing: Laser cutting of rigid, rigid-flexible and flexible conductor materials in an industrial environment.

SMT stencil technologies: Laser cutting of solder paste stencils (SMT stencils) for the electronics industry. Stencils are used to apply solder paste in the industrial production process of circuit boards.

Solar cell structuring: Systems for structuring thin-film solar cells by the subsidiary LPKF SolarQuipment.

MID - Molded Interconnect Devices (three-dimensional electronic components): Components made from one-component injection molding are structured with the laser ( laser direct structuring , LPKF-LDS process), then metallized and, if necessary, equipped with electronic components. They take on mechanical and electronic tasks.

Laser plastic welding: A non-contact, material-friendly joining technique that connects two plastic components with optically high-quality weld seams safely and hygienically. Laser plastic welding is used in consumer products, in automotive and medical technology.