DSM Desotech, a global leader in the development and supply of UV-curable fiber optic materials, today announced a four-year agreement with Yangtze Optical Fiber and Cable Company Ltd (YOFC), a leading supplier of fiber and cable products in China, for the manufacture and supply of DSM’s new generation of DeSolite Supercoatings™. The partnership is significant in advancing the performance and reliability of optical fiber networks in China.

“This is an important milestone for China’s telecommunications market as a whole, as well as for consumers of high-speed data services in China,” said YOFC Sales Director Yan Changkun. “By leveraging DeSolite Supercoatings™, YOFC will deliver the highest-performing, most reliable optical fiber and cable networks and help protect the investments of China’s leading network service providers.”

Optical fiber coatings are a critical component of today’s high-speed fiber networks, helping to prevent signal loss, as well as give fiber longer life and more reliable field performance. As exploding bandwidth demand presses fiber producers to increase line speeds for higher productivity, only the most advanced coating materials will be able to meet increasingly aggressive fiber performance requirements and reduce the risk of costly network failures.

DSM’s patented DeSolite Supercoatings™ demonstrate a significant technological advancement in microbend sensitivity which minimizes a fiber's signal loss over time and distance, as well as in mechanical properties that increase fiber robustness in all temperature extremes.

“DSM created DeSolite Supercoatings™ in direct response to the tsunami of bandwidth requirements being generated worldwide by today’s high-speed internet applications,” said Rob Crowell, DSM Desotech Vice President of Fiber Optic Materials Rob Crowell. “Fiber is the only solution that can meet this kind of need for speed, and it’s going to have to perform at higher levels than we’ve ever seen before. Supercoatings are the road to that higher level of fiber performance—as well as the road to lower risk for those investing in today’s costly fiber networks.”