Paradigm Lasers Inc., a small Spokane Valley laser-systems designer and manufacturer, says it is developing several new commercial lasers and hopes to start producing some of them next year.


The company, which moved here from East Rochester, N.Y., in September, employs four people and leases a 5,000-square-foot space in the Evergreen Commerce Park, at 1620 N. Mamer.


When Paradigm arrived here, the Spokane Area Economic Development Council hailed its coming, saying it had great potential to grow and generate long-term investment in our community and region.


Paradigm expects to hire next year about 15 people, says company President Tim Irwin, who owns Paradigm with his wife, Judith, and a small number of investors. The EDC had said Paradigm expected to hire as many as 30 people within 18 months after arriving, but Irwin says he cant be that definite about employee numbers right now.


Paradigm, which has been in business since 1992, has been producing and selling for some time made-to-order lasers that serve in a variety of applications, including as sensors and cutting devices, and are incorporated into others products.


Irwin declines to disclose Paradigms revenues. He says that in addition to product sales the company currently has several contracts to develop additional lasers that would be used in others products, such as a device that will detect leaks in gas and oil pipelines. The systems Paradigm is working to develop eventually might perform a wide range of tasks, including precision drilling and welding and permanent hair removal.


We plan to have an industrial laser for welding on the market in the second quarter of next year, Irwin says. We have a lot of irons in the fire at once.


Paradigm also is working as a subcontractor to develop a laser to be used by the U.S. military.


Its an application for terrain mapping for unmanned air vehicles, Irwin says. Our product is a subsystem of a larger laser set.


Irwin, an electrical engineer, moved Paradigm here for personal reasons.


The companys lasers are priced at between $20,000 and $500,000.


Basically, lasers are devices that generate or amplify light and are capable of producing immense heat and power, Irwin says. He says lasers can be 10 to 100 times brighter than the sun and asserts that Paradigms lasers are capable of cutting synthetic diamonds.


Synthetic diamonds are one of the hardest substances there is, he says. The lasers can vaporize it.


Paradigm develops and manufactures advanced diode-pumped solid-state laser systems, which Irwin says use electricity to charge thousands of laser diodes that produce light. That light is then pumped into crystal rods, which produce a focused beam of energy. Other types of lasers can use gas- and liquid-based technology.


Paradigm has four patents, including one that applies to a unique radial array of light that produces a high-brightness beam for sharp focusing.


Irwin says it can take months for Paradigm to build one laser device by hand, from components the company buys or sometimes makes itself. The components include mirrors, electronics, crystals, and a cooling system.


We build them from the ground up, Irwin says. It really depends on the complexity of the laser.


The company says its close to marketing a hand-held laser that will permanently remove body hair.


We have to make sure the product is safe and that it works well, Irwin says. Were developing pre-production, and we need to have another round of clinical evaluation.


Irwin says the companys lasers also might end up having health-care applications; some research has shown that lasers could be used to manage back pain.


Its very exciting, he says. Low-light therapy seems to have an effect on nerves and tissues.


While the company doesnt have a core product, no idea is too radical to consider, Irwin says. For example, Paradigm is working on a laser device that might keep men from balding. In that project, its developing with an East Coast company a hair-retention device that would work with a drug or herb to stimulate hair follicles.