About

Laser Products Industries

For over a decade, Laser Products Industries has focused on supplying lasers to help identify and provide the means to gather information on irregular and inappropriate job conditions and to accurately correct them or fabricate finished products to match.

Laser Products is proud to say that we are an international distributor of laser measuring devices while keeping 100% of our production at home in the United States. We believe in producing quality tools for quality professionals.

Dan Louis left as a vice president of a top 15 flooring retailer to pursue manufacturing lasers to depict the as built conditions of spaces that were to receive tile, wood and other flooring products. The quest was for the salesman to easily determine if the floors and walls were square, flat and/or level before the job was sold. This resulted in the issuing of 2 US Patents for the SL-24 Laser Square and the FR-16 Framing Square. These sales were bolstered by the distribution of Leica Geosystems’ line of laser measuring and leveling lasers.

After quickly rising to the top of the market in the flooring and tile industries, Dan realized that templating the existing as built conditions of counter tops was complex, cumbersome and rampant with quality issues. At the time all the digital templating systems were either mechanical or photogrammy and were not only costly but required 3D CAD knowledge to operate.

Digital Templating

Dan embarked to develop a totally different type of template system, a system that used the English language (and now 9 other languages) to operate as opposed to the memorization of hundreds of CAD icons. In early 2005 Dan delivered the first laser digital templating system and stayed true to Laser Products Industries’ mission statement; “Design, develop and bring to market products that make your life easier without requiring you to learn a new skill.”

Knowing that the average level of technology in the stone industry was rather basic and only a few companies could operate the current complex CAD orientated systems, he introduced the LT-55 Laser Templator. The LT-55 was a simple PocketPC driven system and a couple years later Laser Products Industries introduced the LT-55 XL. The major advancement between the two systems was the introduction of a Microsoft Windows based TabletPC allowing templators to take advantage of time saving duties like emailing job files back to the office, estimating the job on site and taking photos of the job for reference.

After only being on the market for a couple years the LT-55 and now currently, the LT-55 XL has revolutionized the templating in the stone industry. This allows even manual fabricators, which currently represent over 50% of the current market, to capitalize on the new found speed and accuracy that the LT-55 XL provides. It allows manual fabrication in less than one third of the time of the old methods to produce a precision vinyl template to fabricate accurate counter tops. The CNC capable fabricators are obviously able to capitalize on its ability to drive the CNC’s with little effort.

With over 400 user driven improvements from completely paperless operation to allowing customers  to sign off on multiple documents while only making one signature on the TabletPC at the job site, the possibilities are almost endless. In some cases, Laser Products Industries commitment to quality and customer satisfaction has led to updates being implemented to all users in as little as three days by the use of the software’s automatic update process. Training has been reduced primarily due to a three DVD set of specifically tailored training videos with instructions for operation. More personalized training is still available to those who require it. Because most new technology requires painstaking change, it was decided that the system had to remain simple to understand yet offer cutting edge features and benefits to the users.

Furthering its commitment to the industry, Laser Products Industries belongs to all of the major trade associations relative to the stone and solid surface industries. Focusing on education, the company participates in over 20 trade show seminars and workshops across the country every year and now has over 2000 users in over 30 countries.

Headquartered in Romeoville, IL, Laser Products Industries employs 15 administrative staff managers and sales representatives in the Chicago land area, Columbus, OH, Nashville, TN and Los Angeles, CA. The Canadian, European and Australian offices oversee their own sales staff. Dan is proud of his support and service operations which according to customers are the best in the industry and near the top of any other company they’ve dealt with.

The company’s website (www.LaserProductsUS.com) is one of the most comprehensive in the industry loaded with instructional and education information and videos. A potential  customer can even use their simple Return On Investment formula to determine how much they will save every year when they make the switch to using the LT-55 XL.

All of Laser Products Industries products are manufactured here in the U.S. and their commitment to “going green” shows in the LT-55 XL’s completely paperless operation at the office and in the field even while providing customized forms and customer signatures.

The Industry

According to Dan, the growth market that the counter top fabrication industry is currently in is reaching the mature stages which means the game has now changed. He likes to explain it by talking about how eight years ago the metal fabrication industry started the same process of maturing. 50% of the fabricators were manual and 50% digital (CNC). Now over 97% are CNC. The volume of work was the same or more at the end but 30-40% of the industries manual fabricators failed leaving 60-70% of the remaining CNC fabricators who committed to their industry to handle all the sales.

Dan also tries to reinforce the concept that we should learn from history not only because the less efficient fabricator will fail, but that the remaining digital/CNC fabricators will be manufacturing finished products for 40-50% less per square foot than their manual counterparts.

It is kind of hard to watch says Dan “knowing that 30-40% of the fabricators who are too stubborn or who don’t see the math will use the excuse that ‘business is slow’ when actually the more efficient fabricators can double or even triple their volume” and he gets goose bumps when he hears of a struggling fabricator say “I’ve been doing it this was for 20 years and haven’t had a problem yet.”