shares of coherent jumped by more than a fifth on wednesday after the company unveiled new laser processing heads for highspeed precision welding that are primed for electric vehicle manufacturing the stock is up 21 at 5197 in early trading shares have risen by 48 this year but are still lower than they were 12 months ago the advanced laser processing company said before the opening bell that its ph20 smartweld laser processing heads have been optimized for ev manufacturing applications coherent noted there has been explosive growth in battery manufacturing for evs which has driven up demand for laser processing systems that can efficiently produce highquality welds in batteries for battery lidtocan welding in aluminum we are able to achieve precision welds at very high speeds said alexander roth vice president and managing director of coherents laser systems business unit in addition what differentiates this processing head is its ability to oscillate the laser beam in any desired pattern while moving along the weld path thanks to its lightweight mirrors and proprietary process control roth said