Dätwyler commences fibre production at new Swiss factory

17 April 2003 Altdorf, Switzerland--Within just 18 months the Dätwyler Cables+Systems has built and commissioned a new glass fibre factory at Boudry, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

The company says it now has its own production facility located in the heart of Europe for the manufacture of glass fibre cables intended for "high-quality LANs and carrier networks".

Dätwyler is making fibre for the production of its own glass fibre product range, now available world-wide. The new premises has a production area of 2500 square metres and a drawing tower 25m high. At present it has the capability for the annual production of several hundred thousand fibre kilometres.

"We are convinced that the Internet and e-business will continue to grow considerably and therefore glass fibre is the transmission medium of the future. Even if this process takes longer than everyone thought at first, the demand for transmission capacities will increase," said Martin Kohn, Managing Director of Dätwyler (UK) Ltd.

"The demand for glass fibres has always been influenced cyclically to a large extent," said Frédéric Sandoz, Managing Director Dätwyler Fibre Optics, the current market situation.

"The combined area of cables and systems has already gone through several of such cycles. In this factory we are deliberately investing in an anticyclic way. With our own fibre production we are independent of suppliers and well prepared for the next upswing."

The process in Boudry includes all production steps. The primary preform - a silica tube being coated inside and collapsed, which contains the core of the later glass fibre - is manufactured by the Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition (MCVD) process.

During sleeving the primary preform is guided through a thick silica tube and afterwards induces that to collapse above the primary preform. Out of each preform manufactured this way up to several hundred kilometres of monomode fibre are drawn and coated in a drawing tower.

Dätwyler will be exhibiting at FiberComm, Munich, June 23-26: Hall B1, booth B1.237

Further information is avaikable at www.daetwyler.net