RMI lands big deals with small mark

Business Report Correspondent LAFAYETTE — Rocky Mountain Instrument, a Lafayette-based laser and optics maker, now has a machine that marks products with a laser beam, and it’s boosting the company’s bottom line. It is just the latest success for the company Yubong Hahn founded in 1957 as a manufacturer of traditional optical components.

“There are many businesses that have to mark their products,´ said Hahn, the company’s president. “One example is the medical field. The artificial joints can’t be labeled with paint, obviously. Our laser marking machine can label them without paint or ink so it’s safer and better for the industry.”

Hahn is a recipient of an Entrepreneur of Distinction Award presented at Esprit Entrepreneur 2001, sponsored by the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. The award salutes him for his entrepreneurial spirit.

Hahn said many of the small parts in computers and other machines such as capacitors have to be labeled, but they’re so small it can be difficult to do. Often times, ink will not stick well to such products.

“The laser beam can write on surfaces without any foreign substances,” he said. “Ink on plastic doesn’t work very well.”

Hahn said auto-part makers and toolmakers also use the technology. The machine even imprints information on the viewfinders of digital cameras on a dot half a millimeter in diameter. The machine also has applications such as marking pendants found in the gift shop industry.

Hahn said that among the laser machine’s advantages is its size. It’s about as big as a laptop computer, which means it can be shipped by standard methods such as UPS or Federal Express. Upon arrival it can be set up by a non-technical user and powered by a 110-volt wall plug, Hahn said.

“Right now the military is experimenting with bar coding in inventory and tracking activities,” Hahn said. “There is a pretty big market for the technology.”

The machine has padded RMI’s bottom line nicely, adding about $15 million in revenue annually, Hahn said.

“We’ve just finished selling the machine in Japan, and we’re very pleased with the results,” he said. “We sold about 250 machines there during the last year. We’re now starting to sell in the United States and other countries.”

A laser-marking machine costs about $40,000, and Hahn said RMI’s goal is to sell 500 machines in the United States over the next year.

“The news on the economy has been very depressing, but this technology has been a bright spot for us,” Hahn said. “We’re one of only three companies in the world that has this technology.”

Laser technology is just one of the company’s efforts. Today the company specializes in the design and production of optics and coatings for a wide range of industries, including aerospace, military, medical, industrial, information processing, semiconductor, telecommunications and imaging.

One project on that side of the business is the manufacture of DVD components. RMI is getting contracts in the “$10 million range,” Hahn said.

“DVD isn’t just about entertainment like most people think about when they hear DVD. It’s also a part of computers,” he said.

Hahn said another of the technologies that RMI is now developing is a “centerpiece” of high definition television production.

RMI is headquartered in a 90,000-square-foot building in Lafayette, which is also the company’s primary manufacturing facility. Subsidiaries are located in Korea and Russia.

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