Acreo, F&T Partner on Specialty Fiber

KISTA, Sweden -- On October 24 Acreo and F&T - Fibers and Technology signed an agreement regarding cooperationon development and production of specialty optical fibers. Within this 3-yearagreement Acreo FiberLab in Hudiksvall shall perform volume production for F&T of differenttypes of multimode all silica optical fibers with various coating and jacketing materials.Acreo will also assist F&T in development of new commercially viable fiber types includingcombinations of novel preform designs and fiber drawing techniques.

"We are very excited over this opportunity," says Dr. Per Karlsson, Dept. Manager of AcreoPhotonics Center. "Acreo and F&T will form a strong team where our expertise in specialtysingle mode fibers is combined with F&T´s long experience in non-telecom fibers."

"The cooperation with Acreo give us a real competitive advantage through the access to astate-of-the-art production facility and a first-class R&D environment for optical fiber development,"say Fibers and Technology’s GmbH's general manager, Dr. Michael Kreitel.

These kinds of fibers are produced with techniques that differ from the standard telecom opticalfibers. Acreo is therefore investing more than 3 MSEK in a new, specially designed, fibredrawing tower that will accommodate both production and development of non-standard fibretypes with different coating materials. The new tower will be installed by January 2004 andF&T contribute with expertise and training. The fiber production is expected to start in April.

Prof. Ingmar Höglund, Manager of Acreo FiberLab Hudiksvall: "This agreement is very importantfor the region and it is a great step in the direction of making Hudiksvall a centre ofexcellence of fibre optics in Sweden."