AFL says its employees have earned five patents for technologies within the company's optical connectivity, fusion splicing, and test and inspection divisions.
For example, AFL's Test & Inspection team earned a patent for the Health Meter interface on the WDM900 Lightwave Test Set. The feature reduces the complexity of using an optical spectrum analyzer by combining multiple parameters into a single diagnosis of "healthy or unhealthy" for all channels in a C/DWDM transmission system. The presentation enables general users to quickly and easily collect expert-level test results in the field, AFL says.
The Optical Connectivity Team received two patents for submarine network hardware. The first patent is for a highly reliable, full ocean pressure "tube seal" that consists of a swage and a Morrison seal. The second patent, "cylindrical housing with locking ring," describes a one atmosphere pressuring housing designed to interconnect small undersea cables.
AFL's harsh environment team received the fifth patent, for a cable technology that enables optical fiber to be deployed as a temperature sensor in extremely high temperature environments in hydrocarbon processing and geothermal applications.
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