Corning's expertise in materials, manufacturing, and process engineering is legendary. Corning's researchers relied on this expertise when we invented the first commercially-viable, low-loss optical fiber in 1970, and it has given us an advantage over our competition ever since.
In fact, Corning is unsurpassed in fiber optic manufacturing experience. Corning produces all the glass materials for our fibers from raw materials in our clean-room facilities, and our outside vapor deposition technology is patented. Corning is relentless in ensuring that its manufacturing process delivers the quality, efficiency, precision, and product consistency customers deserve.
An optical fiber is comprised of three basic parts: (1) the core is the inner glass of the fiber that carries information in the form of light signals (2) the cladding glass surrounds the core and prevents signal loss and (3) an outer coating is then applied over the cladding, to protect the glass from physical damage. Watch an illustrated comparison of single-mode and multimode composition. View
The fiber making process begins by creating "preforms" of core and cladding glass on proprietary vapor deposition lathes; the chemistry of this process is controlled so precisely that contaminant levels are measured in parts per billion. These preforms are sintered into a solid, dense, transparent glass and are subsequently drawn into a coated optical fiber the diameter of a human hair, with dimensional precision at the one-micron level. Additional manufacturing steps test the fiber for strength at 100,000 pounds per square inch and fully measure its optical performance before shipment to customers.
Corning's manufacturing process is highly controlled with quality architecture built in at every stage. The resulting advantages Corning gains enables us to make the best performing optical fiber in the world.
Explore the videos below for more information on Corning’s Manufacturing Advantage.
- Watch this overview on how Corning makes its industry-leading, high quality, and innovative optical fiber. View
- Learn about Corning’s optical fiber manufacturing process. View
- Learn the basics about optical fiber. View