Increase in military orders leads to optical-fiber testing lab's expansion

National Technical Systems, Inc. (www.ntscorp.com), faced with increased orders for optical-fiber testing, is expanding its test laboratory in Fullerton, CA. The lab is a provider of conformance testing, and ISO registration and managed services. Lab representatives say they are expanding now partly because more optical-fiber manufacturers are getting orders from the military.

"This says to me that there are still pockets [of growth] in the telecommunications market," says Doug Briskie, vice president of operations at National Technical Systems, based in Calabasas, CA.

National Technical Systems has 12 laboratories, which provide conformity assessment services for clients selling their products to global markets. The Fullerton lab, which has served the optical-fiber component market for 40 years, features a Passive Fiber Optic Components (PFOC) certification program. It offers optical-fiber testing capabilities and related services, and serves a spectrum of industries. The lab will, for example, test optical-fiber for return loss and insertion loss.

Now National Technical Systems has expanded its PFOC lab with state-of-the-art optical-fiber testing equipment. "We bought optical performance equipment, insertion loss and return loss systems. We put it all through a clean environment, and hired expertise," says Briskie.

Briskie says that manufacturers who use the lab are increasingly selling components to the military for defense applications, and to telecommunications applications or information systems. The lab is also increasingly conducting tests on optical-fiber connectors, terminators, and distribution frames.