Optical Fiber Reaches from Lab to Factory

Kirk Grim

The use of fiber optics in the laboratory has been steadily increasing for five years. Optical fiber devices can be used for temperature sensing, pressure sensing, pH measurements and material-specific sensing. However, the bulk of laboratory demand for optical fibers is for their capabilities in real-time spectroscopic analysis. As fibers improve and spectroscopy equipment shrinks, these techniques are moving out of the laboratory and into manufacturing quality control applications.