Listen to this articleOFS has one of the longest and most respectable corporate lineages in American business going back to Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the telephone more than a century ago. Today, OFS is a world-leading designer, manufacturer and provider of optical fiber, fiber optic cable, connectivity, FTTx and specialty optical fiber solutions. Their marketing, sales, manufacturing and research teams provide forward-looking, innovative products and solutions in such areas as Communications, Medicine, Industrial Networking, Sensing, Aerospace and Defense applications.
Below is our interview with Michael Fortin, Senior Director of BCMC department (Branding, Content Marketing and Communications) at OFS:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to OFS?
A: Our customers have deployed more than 483 million kilometers of OFS optical fiber, the equivalent of 628 round trips from Earth to the moon. And, as OFS continues building on its legacy of fiber optic innovation, the company’s research and product breakthroughs have received numerous industry awards including a 2016 Technology and Engineering Emmy® award for contributions toward the “Pioneering Invention and Deployment of Fiber Optic Cable.”
OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd. and is an $11 billion global leader in the design, manufacture and supply of fiber optic products, network products, electronics components, power cables, nonferrous metals and other advanced technology products. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Furukawa operates production facilities on five continents around the globe, including OFS in the U.S.A., Europe and China.
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Q: You’ve recently announced the launch of FlightLinx® PLUS Fiber Optic Cable; could you tell us something more?
A: The new FlightLinx PLUS Fiber Optic Cable was designed for inflight entertainment, internet access, networking and display systems used in commercial aircraft. While this ruggedized cable meets ARINC 802 performance requirements without the need for a double jacket, it remains flexible, lightweight and easy to terminate.
Q: What are your key advantages?
A: Some key advantages of the FlightLinx PLUS Cable are:
(1) This cable’s pull-proof design ensures that, once terminated, the cable can be pulled on without creating an optical disconnection that could interrupt critical data communication on a commercial aircraft;
(2) The cable helps to prevent kinking, epoxy wicking and fiber breakages during and after deployment;
(3) The lightweight design helps to address the demand for lighter aircraft and improved fuel efficiency which can help to positively impact our customers’ bottom line;
(4) Premium 62.5 µm OFS optical fiber offers increased bandwidth for data communications.
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Q: Can you give us more insights into your innovative fiber optic products?
A: OFS Laboratories located in Somerset, NJ, is the research arm of OFS. Its roots go back to Bell Labs and when OFS was created those scientists involved in photonics as well as a portfolio of over 500 photonics related patents were assigned to OFS.
Today, OFS Labs works with the development teams in the Communications and the Specialty groups to bring to market new products that meet the needs of customers across the many industries OFS serves.
OFS and its predecessor companies have been at the forefront of fiber optic innovation:
• One of the first to commercialize optical fiber to telecommunications
• LC®, ST®, crimp and cleave connectors
• HCS® (Hard Clad Silica) fiber optic solutions providing ease of use in harsh environments
• AllWave® Zero Water Peak Single-Mode Optical Fiber
• EZ-Bend® Optical Fiber
• HCXtreme® Optical Fiber for high power laser delivery in tight bends
• TeraWave® ULL Optical Fiber for ultra-long haul distances needed to connect hyper-scale datacenters
• LaserWave® FLEX Wideband (OM5) Optical Fiber for handling large amounts of data for Web 2.0 applications
• TeraWave® SCUBA Optical Fiber for transoceanic communication lines
• AccuTube®+ Rollable Ribbon (RR) Fiber Optic Cable
Q: What can we expect from OFS in next six months?
A: Our project portfolio today includes new cutting edge fiber optic products to help meet the insatiable demand for bandwidth from the consumer and the increasing digitization of business, to assist in life-saving medical procedures, to provide communication networks in the harsh settings of industrial and avionics settings, and to enable the delivery of high power fiber laser energy in cutting, welding, and micro-machining applications. The OFS portfolio of new product development is driven by current and future needs of the markets and the customers we serve.
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