OFS, Laseroptik celebrate 25 years in specialty photonics, and coatings/laser mirrors

The Specialty Photonics Division of OFS (Avon, CT) has something in common with coatings and laser-mirror developer Laseroptik (Garbsen, Germany): both are celebrating 25 years in business. In addition, the latter has announced a change in leadership. OFS designs, manufactures, and sells optical fiber, optical fiber cable, FTTX, optical connectivity, and specialty photonics products in its Specialty Photonics Division; the primary objective of Laseroptik is to support customers to produce better lasers with its optical components.

"At this point in the business climate, where others started up in the boom times and still more have closed their doors since, we here at the Avon facility are both happy and humbled to be in the fortunate position of celebrating a Silver Anniversary. We continue to stay on the cutting edge of innovation, production methods, and customer-centered market and product development," said Willy Cote, General Manager of the Specialty Photonics Division.

OFS's Connecticut facility opened--in what had been a movie theater--with one draw tower, making a product called HCS optical fiber. Today, OFS's facility sports multi-story draw towers, and the company designs and manufactures the specialty fiber optic products that form the basis of its business. It serves customers in the telecommunications, medical, and industrial--as well as the government, aerospace, and defense markets--and employs approximately 150 highly trained technicians, assembly workers, office personnel, engineers and scientists. Headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a multi-billion dollar global leader in optical communications.

Johannes Ebert officially founded Laseroptik as a spinoff from the institute of quantum optics at Hanover University, and today the company employs 50 skilled individuals, runs 20 coating plants and uses four coating methods in order to cover all requirements of their laser customers. For customers with urgent needs, the Laseroptik Express service offers to manufacture coatings and laser optics with as little as 24 hours lead time.

Now Dr. Ebert has handed over his duties and commissions as CEO to his son, Dr. Wolfgang Ebert. "Now, the next generation can demonstrate their abilities and I can fully concentrate on technical support for our customers," said the company's founder. Together with his wife Angelika, he assists customers with complex inquiries. Meanwhile the new CEO, who joined Laseroptik in 1997, and runs the business in cooperation with the long-term managing director Werner Moorhoff, who was part of the founding team and also celebrates 25 years with the company this year, too.

Apart from new technical solutions, LASEROPTIK aims at expanding its customer support in the future. The company's newly designed website contains a glossary of available coating categories and associated types, as well as an explanatory section on applied coating methods.

For more information about both OFS's Specialty Photonics Division and Laseroptik see the companies' websites.