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Product category: Cables and Wires
News Release from: Acal TC | Subject: Fibre-optic cable assemblies
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 18 October 2001

Fibre-optic cable assemblies made to
order

In launching a unit dedicated to the design, repair and assembly of fibre-optic cable assemblies, you might think Townsend Coates is simply following the crowd.

In launching a unit dedicated to the design, repair and assembly of fibre-optic cable assemblies, you might think Townsend Coates is simply following the crowd After all, fibre-optic systems are increasingly widely used, and such facilities must be in demand

If so, you'd be partly right and partly wrong.

You'd be right to think there's a rapidly growing demand for such a capability; wrong to assume that TC is following a trend.

On the contrary, the company is possibly the only component distributor in the UK - perhaps even Europe - to take such an initiative, and is therefore in the vanguard of progress.

So why, exactly, has TC made this move, when most others haven't? The answer to this is simple: most others don't have a close business relationship with Amphenol, a world-leader in interconnect solutions, with over two decades of experience in supplying fibre-optic systems to organisations around the world.

Operating across all sectors - though with a focus on mil-aero - the company has a massive capability, so - at first glance, anyway - it might seem paradoxical that it has identified a need to outsource some of its service provision.

Yet it has.

And, based on its long-standing relationship with TC as an assembling distributor, it has appointed TC as its partner: hence the new unit.

This though, doesn't account for the rationale behind Amphenol's decision.

Steve Fowler, the company's UK marketing manager, explained: "Essentially, it comes down to flexibility", he said.

"As a large systems supplier, we're geared up for large contracts, but there's a significant amount of repair and follow-up work which may not be commercially viable for us to handle, as it would require re-drawing, restructuring, a rebill of materials etc.

On the other hand, it's important that we keep some level of control, in order to guarantee quality.

The best way to handle this is to pass the work through a partner with a portfolio optimised to the projects we work on.

This would enable us to guarantee fast turnaround at the right quality, so everyone gains - the customer, our partner and us".

As a specific example of how such a facility would prove its worth, Fowler points - as one example of many - to a highly successful NATO project, originally supplied a while back, and still supported by Amphenol.

"When this system was originally implemented in Bosnia, there were many returns due to broken cable, mainly due to the fact that fibre runs were mistaken for copper, and treated accordingly.

These days, we colour-code the fibre so it doesn't happen so often, but at the time it was a real problem, as they weren't repairable.

A suitably equipped partner could take the drawings and provide replacements much more quickly and cost-effectively than we could".

Such a partner would obviously need the right skillsets and experience.

But it also needs an appropriate stock and equipment infrastructure.

From an inventory perspective, this was straightforward: as a long-standing distributor of Amphenol products, TC has in-depth product knowledge, and systems geared to the assembly and supply of Amphenol connectors.

The company also had a highly experienced design capability.

From an equipment perspective, however, significant investment was required.

"For obvious reasons, you can't solder and crimp fibre as you would copper, nor can you use conventional test kit.

Some basic optical testing can be implemented with very basic equipment, but electrical functional test needs special power meters, light sources and fibrescopes.

TC not only had to invest in this, but needed to build a facility which delivered clean-room conditions, too".

This was all completed as recently as April 2001, and is now fully up and running, offering a full termination and test capability for all connector types, such as ST, SC, FDDI etc.

Clearly focused on speciality requirements, rather than the commodity environment, the facility will initially focus on applications for hazardous and mission critical environments, such as military, railways and flow-measurement.

However, it also has the capability to address the needs of markets such as telecommunications and medical.

Fully supported by the Amphenol's fibre-optic division, TC's new facility is destined to be a major benefit to the connector manufacturer.

But it enjoys Amphenol support, it functions as an independent and autonomous unit.

Amphenol understands that to deliver the highest benefit to them, we need to stand alone in a commercial sense, which means, for example, that although we specialise in the use of Amphenol connectors, we will also use other quality brands if requested - or if it is appropriate to do so for other reasons.

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