Harsh/Special Environments

There are many assembly houses that can make standard, “cookie cutter” patchcords and jumper cable assemblies, but these products are not useful if they cannot operate in the intended application environment. They may work well during testing in the lab, or even in the field for weeks, months or years, but sooner or later, they’ll begin to degrade and “go dark”.  

Selecting fibers, components, materials, adhesives, and processes that anticipate and can handle the effects of extreme temperatures and/or harsh environments is one of Berkshire’s core competencies.  Optical fibers drawn using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) processes are strong, have low coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE), and are thermally and chemically resistant, but their mechanical strength can be compromised over time, especially under high-temperature and high-moisture conditions. 

Organic coatings are typically applied during the fiber drawing process to protect the fiber during handling, cabling, and deployment. However, if the deployment environment goes beyond the ambient temperature range for indoor or “normal” outdoor environments, special designs may be required for fibers, coatings, buffers, cable jackets, adhesives, connectors, cables, bundles, armoring, shielding or reduced function, stability, and/or operating lifetimes may result.  

Berkshire has solutions that add value, by preserving optical performance, stability, and lifetime while reducing risk of catastrophic or gradual failure.  

• Berkshire Strengths: 
  • Fiber design and selection
  • Coating material selection
  • Extruded buffer selection
  • Multifiber cable design for high and/or low temperatures
  • High-temperature coatings
  • Hermetic fiber coatings
  • Metal fiber coatings
  • Specialized connectors

• Berkshire Solutions:
  • Wide temperature range design from -45° to +85°C, -55° to +125°C
  • High temperature fiber coatings to 125°C; to 200°C, 300°C
  • Metal coatings to 500+°C;
  • Hermetic coatings for high temperature and pressure fluid environments
  • Chemical resistant coatings
  • Fiber-in-Metal-Tube (FIMT) armoring
  • Spiral-wrap armoring for high power laser delivery
  • Flame retardant buffer and jackets
  • Self-extinguishing coatings for laser damage prevention
  • Radiation and UV resistant fibers for space applications
  • UV resistant coatings and connector adhesives for UV/Blue laser delivery probes
  • Industrial and Mil-Std tactical multi-pin connectors
  • High temperature terminations for sensor probes

• Product Focus:
  • Fibers for mid- and high-temperature environments
  • Hermetic coated single mode fiber
  • High temperature, reduced-diameter fibers
  • High-temperature cables
  • Cables, connectors, terminations for special environments or exposure to harsh chemical, radiation, or mechanical exposure
  • Coatings, cables and armoring for high power laser applications
  • Flame retardant, LSZH cables
  • Radiation-resistant fibers
  • Radiation detection sensor fibers or bundles

Contact Us at 860-868-0412 to discuss your needs for environmentally robust assemblies – whether for wide environmental swings, high temperatures, long-term chemical exposure or high-power laser delivery.