Top Industries purchasing Erbium (Er)
Major Individual Company Purchasers
Caution: This content was sourced and arranged by AI and thus may be subject to errors, biases, omissions, or antiquation.
This information can provide a general sense of industry dynamics, but may be unreliable in its specifics, or as an isolated basis for investment decisions.
| Rank | Industry | Metric Tons (Est.) | Percent Usage | Primary Applications |
| 1 | Telecommunications | 315 | 31.5% | Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) for long-haul data. |
| 2 | Glass & Optics | 220 | 22.0% | Pink-tinted decorative glass and UV-filtering eyewear. |
| 3 | Medical & Dental | 135 | 13.5% | Er:YAG lasers for skin resurfacing and painless dentistry. |
| 4 | Ceramics & Pigments | 100 | 10.0% | Glazes for porcelain and high-heat ceramic colorants. |
| 5 | Nuclear Energy | 70 | 7.0% | Burnable neutron poisons in nuclear fuel rods. |
| 6 | Metallurgy & Alloys | 45 | 4.5% | Reducing hardness and improving workability in vanadium alloys. |
| 7 | Industrial Lasers | 35 | 3.5% | High-precision cutting and welding in micro-manufacturing. |
| 8 | Aerospace & Defense | 25 | 2.5% | Rangefinders, target designators, and satellite comms. |
| 9 | Consumer Electronics | 20 | 2.0% | Miniature laser components and high-end display filters. |
| 10 | Solar Energy | 18 | 1.8% | Upconversion phosphors to increase solar cell efficiency. |
| 11 | Cryogenics | 12 | 1.2% | Magnetic regenerators for ultra-low temperature cooling. |
| 12 | Scientific Research | 10 | 1.0% | Spectroscopy and photonic crystal research. |
| 13 | Chemical Catalysts | 8 | 0.8% | Specialized chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes. |
| 14 | Jewelry (Synthetic) | 8 | 0.8% | Colorant for Cubic Zirconia and synthetic gems. |
| 15 | Lighting Technology | 7 | 0.7% | Phosphors for specialized fluorescent and LED lights. |
| 16 | Automotive (Sensors) | 6 | 0.6% | LiDAR components and infrared sensors for ADAS. |
| 17 | Marine Instrumentation | 5 | 0.5% | Undersea fiber repeaters and sonar optics. |
| 18 | Textile Dyes | 4 | 0.4% | Rare-earth based markers for anti-counterfeiting fabrics. |
| 19 | Photography | 4 | 0.4% | Specialized camera lens coatings to reduce chromatic aberration. |
| 20 | Space Exploration | 3 | 0.3% | Deep-space optical communication systems. |
Major Individual Company Purchasers
- Corning Incorporated: A global leader in glass and fiber optics; Corning is a massive purchaser of Erbium for its high-performance optical fibers and EDFA components.
- Lumentum Holdings: A major manufacturer of optical transceivers and fiber lasers that rely on Erbium-doped glass to amplify signals in hyperscale data centers.
- Coherent Corp (formerly II-VI): One of the largest purchasers for industrial and medical laser applications (Er:YAG crystals).
- Cisco Systems: While an OEM, Cisco’s massive demand for optical networking hardware dictates the Erbium procurement for its global manufacturing partners.
- Schott AG: A German glass giant that uses Erbium for specialty optical filters, aesthetic glass, and UV-protection components.
- Lumen Technologies (formerly CenturyLink): A primary operator of fiber networks that procures Erbium-based amplification hardware for continental-scale data backbones.
- Hoya Corporation: A Japanese leader in optical glass and dental lasers (Er:YAG) that consumes significant volumes for the medical and semiconductor markets.
- Framatome / Westinghouse: These nuclear energy leaders purchase Erbium compounds for use as neutron absorbers in specific reactor fuel designs.
Caution: This content was sourced and arranged by AI and thus may be subject to errors, biases, omissions, or antiquation.
This information can provide a general sense of industry dynamics, but may be unreliable in its specifics, or as an isolated basis for investment decisions.