Wednesday 25 May 2011

OFS-21, 17th-18th May 2011, Ottawa Convention Centre

The OFS-21 Conference, combined with Photonics North, brought a good number of delegates to the Fibercore booth with a particularly strong turn out from Europe.

A wide range of technologies were discussed in the Technical Forums from Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensing techniques using photosensitive fibers such as our PS-range of fiber and our high germania fibers, scattering sensing methods, utilizing Rayleigh, Brillouin and Raman scattering, and polarization sensing techniques using both PM and SM fibers.

The rate of adoption of fiber optic sensors in industry has taken a slow but steady rise with a notable recent acceleration in the acceptance of such techniques for commercial use. As safety becomes a greater issue, companies become liable for any environmental damage and resources become more difficult and costly to extract, these sensor systems start to be viewed as a necessary requirement rather than just academic interest.

Acoustic, vibration, pressure and temperature sensors were all aimed at large industries, particularly the oil and gas, wind energy and security industries.

With OFS-22 based in Beijing, China, between 14th-19th October 2012, it will be exciting to see how some of these technologies have matured and we will hopefully get a strong turn out from the Asian market.