'Opportunity to change the world'

Andy Coppick, president of PFM Engineering, was in pursuit of a laser to cut pieces for the next generation of artificial aortic heart valves. When Conner heard about Coppick's task, he knew that no existing laser could do the job.

So, Conner and Zweerink of Ozark Laser Systems designed a laser to cut more precisely than any commercial laser available.

Thus was born a new breed of laser - precise enough to write on the tip of a strand of human hair - and with it, a new Springfield-based company that's poised to earn $200 million from the PFM project alone.

“We've got an opportunity to change the world (and) obviously to make a lot of money, but we're going to be doing something good for people,” Conner said.

A new venture

Zweerink started OLS Inc. in April 2000 with and two employees and $450,000 in annual revenues.

OLS, which stands for Ozark Laser Systems, uses lasers and global positioning equipment to aid construction projects with tools such as laser levels.

OLS now boasts 30 employees in five markets - Springfield; Springdale, Ark.; and Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Meeker, Okla. - generating $6 million in annual revenues.

After talking with PFM's Coppick, Zweerink and Conner decided to develop an OLS offshoot called U.S. Photonics, which came to fruition in November.

Conner, who joined OLS two years ago, will serve as president and Zweerink will serve as vice president for the new venture, which is using $1.5 million to begin the development of ultra-fine lasers for use in the biomedical and defense fields.

Zweerink is the businessman for U.S. Photonics while Conner - who worked in Kansas State University's engineering department but never attended college classes at any university - is the scientist.

“Jacob is just an amazing scientist with just a brilliant mind,” Zweerink said. “I've put Jacob in front of some of the top professors, Ph.D.s, NASA scientists, MIT graduates and people at every level, and their mouths literally drop open with the knowledge that this guy possesses.”

Building a solution

The idea for U.S. Photonics was born from the agreement with PFM, which is contracted to assemble Arbor Surgical Technologies-designed heart valves.

Zweerink said PFM was having bad luck with standard lasers it was using to cut the valve pieces.

“They were really facing a lot of problems regarding hot spots and corrosion, little explosions on the face of the NiTinol (valve), which required them to do a lot more electropolishing and handwork,” Zweerink said. “The companies that they were outsourcing to were really doing a pretty poor job on the product.”

PFM's Coppick said Conner took his company's cutting problems and “came up with a very elegant solution.”

“(U.S. Photonics is) developing new laser technology and equipment that will basically solve a lot of the problems for the biomedical community,” Coppick said.

U.S. Photonics plans to start cutting its first heart valves within two months. That's when 400 will be needed for round three of human clinical trials in Europe.

Zweerink said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should approve the new valves, which that cut surgery time from 90 minutes to nine minutes, in a couple of years, and at that point, he expects Arbor and its partners - U.S. Photonics included - to cash in on 65 percent of the 380,000 U.S. heart valve operations performed yearly.

With the right investors, Zweerink said, U.S. Photonics may even go international.

Other avenues

Meanwhile, U.S. Photonics already is working on two U.S. Defense Department projects, one involving microelectro mechanical systems through Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and another involving a nonlethal weapon that uses electromagnetic pulses through Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Zweerink and Conner also plan to move U.S. Photonics out of OLS's 2519 E. Kearney St. building and into the Jordan Valley Innovation Center and maybe even into one of the area's underground facilities within the year. Ongoing talks with Missouri State University for JVIC space look promising.

“I'm just proud to be a part of this,” Conner said. “I don't care if you believe in karma or God or whatever, but on the scale of what we're doing … it's a good thing.”

Technically Speaking

What makes U.S. Photonics' lasers unique?

“We are the only manufacturer of laser machining equipment that utilizes fiber optic-fed homodyne interferometers on all linear axes,” said President Jacob Conner. “The interferometers give us one part per billion accuracy.”

In Layman's Terms

“No other laser machining system in the world can achieve the travel ranges with the accuracy and repeatability that our FemtoStation can. It is the only nano-level machining system available commercially to date,” Conner said.