Stuller and Rofin observe 10 year partnership using laser welders for jewelry

Starnberg, Germany - Back in 1970, Matt Stuller started his jewelry business selling from the back of his Winnebago. Today, Stuller Inc. is one of the world’s leading suppliers of quality, value-added products for the global jewelry industry, offering more than 200,000 jewelry and jewelry-related items. Stuller says he made it this far by constantly asking himself what he could do better than the competition. Shortly after starting his own business, he pitched the idea of overnight jewelry shipments to FedEx CEO Fred Smith in the delivery company's early days, and in 2003 the company introduced laser welding to the jeweler's bench.

It has been 10 years since jewelry manufacturer Stuller, Lafeyette, LA, and laser specialist Rofin-Baasel met. The two companies teamed up to introduce laser material processing to the retail jeweler. It turned out to be the starting point for a successful partnership with the 1000 manual welding systems sold.

Rofin Baasel, which pioneered manual laser welding in 1992, felt the time was right for the LSW4000, now called Performance, the first all-in-one system. It soon became the manual laser welding industry standard, much attributed to Rofin's customer-driven development approach. Soon, the first jewelers were among the early customers and became involved in this development with their individual requirements.

Stuller knows that it is not just about selling lasers to jewelers; the company's staff members in have expertise in laser material processing of precious metals. In addition, the aggregated feedback of Stuller's customers are building blocks for Rofin's future laser system development. For example, some years ago Stuller passed the idea of a desktop laser welding system to Rofin. The result can be seen in the new Desktop, which complements the manual laser welding product line-up with a compact table-top system.

"Innovation excellence, long-term partnerships and sustainable business models are part and parcel of Stuller's and Rofin's philosophy,” says Wolfgang Illich, business unit manager at Rofin.

Rofin systems “have been and still are the best available laser welding solutions for jeweler,” says Matt Stuller. “Our customers can work faster and more accurately. They can even perform completely new tasks with the welders, such as eyeglass frame repair or repair of stone settings without removing the stone. These easy-to-use lasers generate additional business for our customers, which makes them profitable.”

(Photo: Rofin's Wolfgang Illich hands over the sales award to Matt Stuller)