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nanoPrecision Products Launches the Ferrolder®
[March 20, 2017]

nanoPrecision Products Launches the Ferrolder®


nanoPrecision Products has announced the commercial launch of the Ferrolder, a breakthrough fiber optic connector component that combines the ferrule and ferrule holder in one. Constructed from titanium, the Ferrolder can be assembled onto a fiber without the use of epoxy, eliminating the single largest cause of connector failure while also dramatically lowering costs.

Available for single-mode or multimode applications, the Ferrolder is qualified for "Single Optical Connector SC-UPC kit" by Verizon and is now available in SC UPC connectorized fiber cable assembly format, with APC (News - Alert) format coming soon.

nanoPrecision Products designed the Ferrolder to help the telecommunications and data communications industries better accommodate the exploding amount of data that has been driven by the Internet Age. The 270 megabit/second data transfer speeds that were hailed in the 1970s have been eclipsed by speeds that are now 400 gigabits/second, a factor of 1,500 times faster and increasing.

"While incremental improvements have been made over the years, the design of today's fiber optic connectors has remained largely unchanged since the 1970s. Relying on epoxy can allow the fiber to move, make the fiber location unpredictable and actually break the fiber, making traditional connectors poorly suited to handle the booming and rapidly increasing amount of data in theworld today," said Michael K. Barnoski, Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer. "nanoPrecision Products' Ferrolder is a fundamentally new, epoxy-free, backward compatible fiber optic connector designed to take the telecommunications and data communications industries into the future."



At the core of the Ferrolder is nanoPrecision Products' proprietary nanoBench™ platform, which revolutionizes methods to align and hold electrical, optical, mechanical, fluidic and other devices within individual product components. Made possible through the innovative use of material science, computational mechanics, precision engineering and manufacturing technologies, each nanoBench-based product is a multi-layered, material-formed component that aligns and holds these devices to nanometer accuracies and tolerances. In the case of the Ferrolder, the product holds and aligns the fiber in a nanometer-scale hole that has the same diameter as the fiber, leaving no need for epoxy. In addition, its combination of ferrule and holder in one part eliminates the ferrule to holder assembly step, greatly reducing cost.

nanoPrecision Products has invested significant time and effort to qualify the new SC Ferrolder connector through very stringent GR 326 and Verizon (News - Alert) VZ-TPR-9409 qualification testing. According to Experior Laboratories, an independent third party testing, design verification and qualification laboratory, the Ferrolder has "over performed the general industry ceramic based with epoxy/cured products with the market available optical housing and adapter." The lab also confirmed that nanoPrecision Products' connector kit is "acceptable by Verizon's high standard."


"Years in development by our excellent team of scientists and engineers, the Ferrolder will set a high bar for quality and reliability in the field," said Barnoski. "We are delighted that Verizon has recognized our effort with its high standard validation."

The Ferrolder is backwards compatible with existing SC fiber optical interconnects. Global consumption of fiber optic connectors (SC ferrules) is estimated to be hundreds of millions per year.

About nanoPrecision Products, Inc.

nanoPrecision Products is the world leader in complex material forming with revolutionary 3D stamping processes that deliver nanometer accuracies and tolerances. The company has pioneered a breakthrough nanoBench™ product platform that revolutionizes methods to align and hold electrical, optical, mechanical, fluidic and other devices. nanoPrecision Products has strong intellectual property in the areas of optical fiber interconnects, packaging, and manufacturing technology, both domestically and internationally, and is the recipient of numerous R&D contracts from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Department of Energy. For more information, visit www.nanoprecision.com.


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