EoW September 2010

Feature

Fibre optic –

machinery &

equipment

shift in emphasis from development and manufacture to installation and deployment takes place

with any breakthrough product at the top of its technology. Nowhere is this more striking than in

the field of fibre optics.

Consider the first element in the fibre manufacturing process: a preform. Tens of kilometres of optical

fibre will be pulled from this cylinder, little larger than a violin case.

Now consider the going live, on 1

July, of the 4,350-mile Main One fibre optic cable running from

Portugal to Nigeria and Ghana, with branches under construction to Morocco, the Canary Islands,

Senegal and Ivory Coast. Before this could happen the cable had to be laid, and its connectivity

assured at mid-ocean depths.

Despite the tremendous differential in scale, the advance from product to application here may seem

inevitable – but not to the suppliers reviewed in this section. They know that, in fact, it was won

only with the use of machinery and equipment designed, customised and adapted to the changing

requirements of their vital and progressive industry.

Photo courtesy of ROBLON A/S

EuroWire – September 2010