AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 21 -- 3M has changed its optical transport product line into an optical components program in order to capture a piece of the growing optical network business. The company has appointed Susan K. Nestegard as the new unit's program manager. By creating an individual unit, we are able to focus more resources to help grow this very important and promising opportunity, said Harry Andrews, executive vice president of the company's Electro and Communications Markets unit. Optical networking is a strategic opportunity for us, where we can apply our advanced materials science to help increase bandwidth. Current 3M product offerings in this area include specialty optical fibers, Bragg gratings for optical amplification and filtering, as well as its dispersion compensation products introduced in August.