News

Nufern Acquires Optelecom's Electro Optics Business

April 12, 2010

 East Granby, Connecticut

April 12, 2010

Nufern, a subsidiary of ROFIN-SINAR Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq: RSTI), one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of high-performance laser beam sources and laser- based solutions, today announced that it has acquired the  Electro Optics fiber optic gyroscope coil winding business of Optelecom-NKF (NASDAQ:OPTC) and will operate it as part of Nufern.

The Optelecom Electro Optics business and its group of experienced employees make the highest precision fiber optic gyroscope coils as well as numerous telecom, payoff and instrumentation type dry and wet wound cored and coreless coils. 

The Optelecom Electro Optics business will be operated by Nufern initially from the existing facilities in Germantown, Maryland and will be expanded to include coil manufacturing from Nufern's facility in East Granby, Connecticut.  Throughout this transition, Nufern will provide the world's finest and unique gyroscope and other fiber coils to both existing and future customers.  In keeping with the Rofin philosophy, Nufern will continue to supply all of its products and services to customers and competitors alike.

"This is an important acquisition for Nufern, not only because we are adding new products to our portfolio but also because we are further strengthening our technology base and enhancing the vertical integration needed to economically manufacture all of our fiber based products," said Martin Seifert, President of Nufern. "We are confident that the talents and skills of Optelecom Electro Optics will contribute to the current & future success of Nufern and the Rofin Group."

"I am very pleased with the fit of the Electro Optics business into Nufern" said Ed Ludwig, recently retired founder & CEO of Optelecom, "Combining the fiber manufacturing of Nufern with the fiber coiling expertise of Optelecom will lead to many new and exciting innovations for the benefit of our combined customer base".

Nufern (www.nufern.com) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of specialty fibers, fiber sub assemblies, fiber amplifiers and fiber laser modules serving a wide range of industries. The company's product lines range from space based spectrometer fibers, industrial lasers at 10's of watts, amplifiers for ultra cold and atom trapping, medical lasers, up to the kW class ultra narrow line width LIDAR, & directed energy lasers.  Based in East Granby, Connecticut, Nufern has approximately 80 employees and markets its products globally to a large OEM-customer base through its own sales network, distributors, integrators and the internet.