November 9, 2007 -- Draka Comteq announced that the latest development in its optical fiber coating technology, dubbed ColorLockXS, will be available on the company's flagship BendBright XS bend-insensitive fiber in January 2008.

According to the company, the ColorLockXS enhancement improves fiber microbending performance as well as strip-ability, while adding vibrant colors integrated into the fiber coating. The company notes that its BendBrightXS is an all-glass fiber designed to eliminate splicing concerns or special procedures needed to connectorize the fiber.

The ColorLockXS enhancement is a patented technology in which the fibers are colored during the draw process. With integrated colors in the fiber coating, the fiber color is guaranteed not to wear, maintaining vibrant colors throughout the lifetime of the fiber. The company notes that its BendBrightXS with ColorLockXS is proof tested after coloring; fibers which are proof tested prior to the fiber coloring process raises questions about true fiber lifetime after coloration

The company notes that the microbending improvement of ColorLockXS coating on BendBrightXS is exemplified by the fiber's resistance to kink-losses, a key metric to determine fiber performance in tight bends in FTTX applications, such as stapling cables. Kink-loss can be described as partial bends up to 45 degrees of the optical fiber at radii as small as 2 mm. Typical losses for BendBrightXS in such a scenario are less than 0.1 dB, even at a 2 mm radius, which represents up to a 100x improvement over standard single mode, according to the company.