Industrial Applications

The use of fibers in LASERS and Light Sources is increasing steadily and our HB-T range of bow-tie HiBi polarization maintaining fibers, offering 250 µm and 400 µm diameters and optimised MFDs to ensure compatibility with telecommunications fibers, are ideal for LASER and depolarizer applications. The more recent introduction of HB-Z polarizing fibers extends the options still further.

In addition, our IsoGain™ and MetroGain™ erbium-doped fibers, as well as the DF1100 and DF1500Y ytterbium and erbium-ytterbium fibers, are used in low-power lasers, light sources and LIDAR applications.

The use of optical fibers in structural sensors, already mentioned for structural health monitoring of buildings and geology, is also important for industrial applications and our two ranges of photosensitive fibers, the PS and SM1500 fibers, are ideal for use in industries where temperature and structures need to be monitored throughout the plant processes. The inclusion of polyimide-coated variants of the SM1500 fibers allows our fibers to be used in the harshest of environments where high-temperature operation and chemical resistance are required. In addition, following the recent extension of Smart Grid technology, Current Sensors have become increasingly important to monitor power in National and Regional electrical grids. To address this need we have revisited our Spun Fiber R&D projects of the 1980s and developed a new HiBi Spun fiber for Faraday Effect Sensors. This fiber has been successfully used in selected customers' applications and will be available very shortly for general release.