Harsh Environment Fiber Optic (HEFO) Market Forecast

According to ElectroniCast Consultants, the worldwide use of fiber optic components used in harsh environments reached $1.3 billion in 2015… 

Aptos, CA (USA) – 2016 -- ElectroniCast Consultants, a leading market and technology research consultancy addressing the fiber optics communications industry, today announced the release of an extensive market forecast and analysis of the global market consumption and technology trends of fiber optic components, and supporting devices and parts, which are designed to operate in harsh environments, beyond the environment of commercial telecom and datacom (premise) installations. 

According to the ElectroniCast study, the value of passive optical components, led by fiber optic cable assemblies (glass optical fiber/GOF plus plastic optical fiber/POF), in harsh environments reached $711 million in 2015.  Transmitter/receiver units, held a 43% percent share of total components consumption in 2015.  The total use of fiber optic components used in all harsh environment applications is forecast to increase at an average annual growth rate of 14.6 % from $1.3 billion in 2015 to $2.6 billion in 2020. Market forecast data in this study report refers to consumption (use) for a particular calendar year; therefore, this data is not cumulative data.

“Historically, the market value of harsh environment fiber optic components and devices has been dominated by military/aerospace-qualified components, with a 68% share in back in 2010; however we forecast that the military/aerospace application’s market share will decrease over the forecast period (2015-2020),” said Stephen Montgomery, Director of the Fiber Optics group at ElectroniCast.  “The commercial/industrial fiber optic component consumption, in turn, is dominated by plastic optical fiber (POF) link components; however, glass-based optical fiber is finding an increase in opportunity in commercial/industrial applications,” Montgomery added.

Harsh Environment (HE) is defined, by ElectroniCast, as environment beyond the limits normally encountered by commercial telecom, datacom and commercial intra-equipment fiber data links; extremes of:

-            Temperature; above or below (-40 to +75) degrees C

-           Shock and vibration; External pressure extremes

-            Tensile strength of fiber

-           High EMI/RFI interference

-            Corrosive and/or solvent surroundings, Atomic and other Radiation

-           Rough handling during installation/deployment; other