1,000,000 Km multimode fibre production in Eindhoven

The Dutch plant in Eindhoven is top manufacturer of multimode fibre products.

Last year a milestone of 1,000,000 km in multimode fibre production was achieved at the plant in Eindhoven, located in the Brainpoint region of The Netherlands, a hub of high-tech companies. The plant’s multimode fibre sales increased from 690,000 km in 2009, to 830,000 km in 2010, to 905,000 km in 2011 up to 1,001,000 km in 2012.

The plant produces multimode fibre products, including the high-end products known as OM3/OM4. These products are delivered to every continent in the world. A significant part (35%) is used by the Prysmian Group’s own cable plants, while the rest is consumed by external customers like Brand-Rex, TE Connettivity, Belden and Optral in Europe or AFL Telecommunications and Nexans BerkTek in the USA. 

This milestone has been achieved thanks to a clear sales strategy since 2009. This strategy has been supported by our technological leadership in multimode fibre products, the Lean and Six Sigma manufacturing approach to operations as well as the introduction of a proactive Total Productive Maintenance approach on the shop floor. At the same time, with the essential support of our R&D department, we have launched BendBright^XS, a bend insensitive multimode fibre, and brought the OM4 high-end product to market.

Roland van Laere, Prysmian Group’s Plant Manager in Eindhoven, said: “We’ve worked hard to achieve this goal. We’re proud that Prysmian Group is the No 1 manufacturer of multimode fibre in the world. We believe that cloud computing systems will trigger a huge increase in the use of multimode fibre products in coming years.”

Most of these multimode fibre products are ultimately used in data communication centres and local area networks (LAN) such as those serving banks, universities and companies.