OFS Employs Photon Kinetics Gear

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Photon Kinetics (PK), the preeminent supplier of testing solutions for optical fiber and cable manufacturers, announced today that it has signed an agreement with OFS, designer, manufacturer, and supplier of leading edge fiber optic products, to deploy PK’s 1200 Automated Fiber Handler (AFH) in OFS’ Norcross, Georgia fiber production facility. The agreement was reached after the successful completion of a production trial that validated the AFH’s ability to significantly reduce overall fiber measurement time and increase operator productivity in OFS’ high volume fiber production environment.

The patent-pending 1200 Automated Fiber Handler revolutionizes the fiber testing process by automating the time-consuming process of stripping, cleaning, cleaving and coupling the fiber under test to the pigtail of a test instrument (e.g. an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) or chromatic dispersion measurement system). The automation of these tasks not only reduces overall fiber measurement time, but also frees the test station attendant to perform other tasks that are more difficult and expensive to automate, such as the handling of fiber spools, and the loading of spools onto the AFH’s Fiber Shuttle.

“OFS’ trial of the Automated Fiber Handler has validated PK’s claim that the AFH is able to maximize the productivity of our OTDR and chromatic dispersion test stations. And, it was surprisingly easy to implement on our production floor, requiring virtually no changes to our facilities or product flow,” said Bill Hatton, Quality Manager for OFS.

Warren Hill, VP of Sales and Marketing for Photon Kinetics added, “We are very pleased with the results of the AFH production trial. It’s always gratifying to see a product deliver its advertised benefits in the “real world”. We appreciate OFS’ confidence in the AFH. Their involvement in this project has been invaluable and we look forward to working with them in the future on other productivity enhancing products.”

OFS

Photon Kinetics Inc.