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17 Jun 2002
UK-based Smart Fibres and Micron Optics, US, have joined forces to design fiber-optic strain sensing systems.
Smart Fibres' sensor systems are based on fiber Bragg gratings technology and are used to measure strain in numerous applications including metallic, composite and concrete structures. Its system was the first optical fiber-based strain sensor to be used in the mast of a yacht and it has also been used to measure strain in bridges in the Millenium Dome in London, UK.
Micron Optics specializes in instrumentation based on its fiber Fabry-Perot tunable filter technology. These include a fiber Bragg grating interrogation system and a swept laser component test system.
"Initially, Micron Optics will simply be supplying us with their equipment. We will then work with customers to develop systems appropriate for their applications," said Rob Knapp, a director at Smart Fibres. "These systems will than be sold by Smart Fibres and we will work with Micron Optics to develop their instrumentation."
"We wanted to work with Micron Optics because, unlike many instrumentation makers who tend to focus on the telecoms industry, Micron Optics' equipment is very appropriate to the sensing industry," he added.
Optical fiber strain sensing systems are used to actively monitor in real time the strain that structures such as bridges, aircraft, pipelines and wind turbines experience in everyday use. They can also be used to measure stress, vibration, temperature and pressure.
Unlike most traditional electrical sensors, they are so small they can be built directly into structures. Scores of sensors can be placed on a single fiber several kilometres long. They are unaffected by corrosion and electromagnetic interference and immune to resistance heating.
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