PIC moves into fibre manufacture Released 4 January 2002 PIC, part of the Twentsche Kable Group, is at the start of a further multi-million pound investment in its Andover plant to introduce fibre cable manufacture. A leading manufacturer of copper data cables for networking applications, PIC will be taking raw fibre, drawn from the billet within the group in Twentsche Kable's China facility, and producing single and multimode fibre optic cables in a variety of configurations and cableways. The initial products to be produced are interior-standard singlemode simplex and duplex fibre cords, suitable for making connecting cables, pigtails and patch cords. The cords are 9/125 micron construction with a semi-tight 250 micron secondary coating that is easy to strip and has very good temperature stability. The cable is reinforced with aramide yarn and the outer sheath is a LSZH covering. Other companies within the group are already producing a wide range of fibre cables; as the investment programme is implemented, the number of different configurations manufactured in Andover will steadily increase. Richard Gray, Sales and Marketing Executive, said, "We have an excellent family of UTP, FTP and S-FTP copper cables conforming to the requirements of Cat 5, 5E, 6 and 7; indeed, we have just completed a major investment programme that has upgraded our copper lines significantly. Our business is manufacturing one of the key networking infrastructure components, and we believe that both fibre and copper media are essential if ever-increasing bandwidth requirements are to be satisfied in the future. We are one of the few groups with a complete vertical capability in fibre manufacture, so we can control the quality of our product at all stages of the production process." *** Ends: body copy 294 words *** Notes to Editors. For further information: PIC contact: Richard Gray Sales & Marketing Executive PIC Limited West Portway Andover SP10 3LF tel: + 44 (0)1264 333444 fax:+ 44 (0)1164 332051 richardg@pic-cables.com www.pic-cables.com Agency contact: Nigel May Parkfield Parkfield House Damerham Hants SP6 3HQ tel: + 44 (0)1725 518321 fax: + 44 (0)1725 518378 Nigel_May@parkfield.co.uk www.parkfield.co.uk PIC is the centre of excellence for copper data cable production within the Twentsche Kable Group, a global conglomerate based in The Netherlands. PIC has been manufacturing data cables for more than forty years and is the cable supplier partner to many leading network systems manufactures; its products are also widely available through wholesalers and distributors throughout Europe and the Middle East. In addition to a broad portfolio of standard UTP, FTP and S-FTP horizontal and patch cables, PIC works closely with its customers to develop innovative, quality cable designs to meet the increasingly demanding requirements of a rapidly evolving market.