Economic Impact Awards Innovator Finalist: U.S. Photonics Inc.

The company’s femtosecond laser system is the brainchild of co-owner Jacob Conner, and what’s unique about it is that it cuts without imparting heat.

Conner was rebuilding medical lasers in his garage when he encountered a problem one of his customers was having with artificial heart valves, and the end result was the femtosecond laser system.

“(The problem) had to do with conventional lasers,” Conner said. “They impart a lot of heat into the component that they are cutting. It’s almost like an oxyacetylene torch. They heat the metal and blow it away. In the process, it was creating damage to these high-precision parts that they just couldn’t tolerate, so we proposed that we come up with a whole new way (to do it).”

Now, according to U.S. Photonics co-owner Ryan Zweerink, the company just needs to find problems that could benefit from the system.

“I think given the right set of circumstances, we can create a lot of job opportunities here in Springfield in the technology sector,” Zweerink said. “We are sort of a solution looking for problems. We’ve got a great tool. We just need some more work for it.”

Zweerink said that his and Conner’s roles are simple: He’s the businessman while Conner is the mad scientist.

Conner said his skills with lasers are mostly self-taught, given that he began acquiring them in teenage hacking and pranks. “My friend (and I) had a surplus catalog when I was 14 years old,” Conner said. “We ordered some parts for a helium laser, and I built a power supply for it. We used to go out and point it at stop signs and such and freak people out with it. This was a time before there were laser-pen pointers, so it was an unfamiliar sight to most people.

“We had a lot of fun with it, and I’ve been interested in lasers ever since.”

Conner and Zweerink developed the system at Ozark Laser & Shoring, which has acted as an incubator for the fledgling U.S. Photonics.

OLS Inc. sells and rents global positioning and survey equipment for construction, but it’s not as unrelated to U. S. Photonics as it may sound.

“On one side, we are positioning a blade to cut grade on a variety of job sites,” Zweerink said. “The motion control that we use at U. S. Photonics, while much more precise, still moves in a similar fashion.”

U.S. Photonics has set up shop at 521 Boonville Ave., across the street from the Jordan Valley Innovation Center, a research and development facility. U.S. Photonics bought the 10,000-square-foot building in January. Conner sees a big plus in helping JVIC reach – and increase – the local technically trained student population.

“Having JVIC here locally is going to attract more students to the university who are likely to want to work in physics or chemistry,” Conner said. “Having those JVIC companies here is going to be more of an incentive for those students to actually stay here because there is actually work for them.” With U.S. Photonics as a JVIC partner, Zweerink sees a lot of opportunity for U.S. Photonics as well as the community.

“Even though we are small, I think that we can be a big resource for other things that are built small, from semiconductors to defense and bio-med,” Zweerink said. “We need to position ourselves for the future viability of Springfield. Being centrally located with a high quality of life and a low cost of living, we are in the right place. We’d like to see Springfield become a technology hub here in the Midwest.”

U.S. Photonics Inc.

Address: 521 Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65806

Phone: (417) 863-9027

Web site: www.usphotonics.com

Employees: 2 co-owners[[In-content Ad]]