Commitments and Contingencies - Additional Information (Detail)	1 Months Ended			12 Months Ended					12 Months Ended			12 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	3 Months Ended		12 Months Ended
	Jul. 13, 2010 USD ($)	May 27, 2010	Nov. 20, 2009	Dec. 31, 2013 USD ($) Customer	Dec. 31, 2012 USD ($) Customer	Dec. 31, 2011 USD ($)	May 06, 2011 EUR (€)	Apr. 18, 2006 EUR (€)	Dec. 31, 2013 Maximum USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 Minimum	May 06, 2011 GSI Group GmbH EUR (€)	Dec. 31, 2013 Land Maximum	Apr. 18, 2006 GSI's French Subsidiary	Sep. 30, 2005 GSI's French Subsidiary	Sep. 27, 2013 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2013 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) USD ($)	Apr. 05, 2010 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) USD ($)
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Line Items]
Lease agreement expiration year									2019	2014		2078
Lease expense				$ 5,300,000	$ 4,400,000	$ 3,600,000
Asset capitalized under capital lease						2,200,000
Unconditional purchase commitments				46,600,000
Unconditional purchase commitments, 2014				42,600,000
Unconditional purchase commitments, 2015				3,700,000
Unconditional purchase commitments, 2016									400,000
Filed for bankruptcy protection date			Nov. 20, 2009											Jul. 07, 2005
Actions taken		On May 27, 2010, the Bankruptcy Court entered an order confirming and approving the plan of reorganization (the "Final Chapter 11 Plan").											On April 18, 2006, the commercial court of Le Creusot (France) ordered GSI France to pay approximately 0.7 million Euros to SCGI in the context of a claim filed by SCGI that a Laserdyne 890 system delivered in 1999 had unresolved technical problems.
Payment to settle claim filed, minimum								700,000
Payment to settle claim filed, maximum							3,100,000
Payment in the respect of a claim filed											2,400,000
IRS filed amended proofs of claim date																April 5, 2010
IRS filed aggregate claims																	7,700,000
IRS Claims	On July 13, 2010, the Company filed a complaint, GSI Group Corporation v. United States of America, in the Bankruptcy Court in an attempt to recover refunds totaling approximately $18.8 million in federal income taxes the Company asserts it overpaid to the IRS relating to tax years 2000 through 2008, together with applicable interest.
Amount of claim we filed with the IRS for federal income taxes overpaid	18,800,000
Income tax refund received				12,607,000	222,000	25,000									12,500,000
Income tax receivable				$ 5,769,000	$ 16,540,000											$ 300,000
Number of customer accounted on accounts receivable balance				1
Number of customers accounted for 10% or more of accounts receivable				0	0