Manufacturing glass optical fiber for telecommunications

Nearly 2 billion people are instantaneously and simultaneously accessing the Internet because of strands of glass thinner than a human hair. This glass, referred to as optical fiber, is not only ultra-thin, but extremely flexible, pure, and rugged.

This glass is created using a tightly controlled, precise manufacturing operation called the Outside Vapor Deposition (OVD) process. Corning invented the three-part OVD process, that transforms raw material chemicals into thin, very pure, high-quality optical fiber.

This amazingly meticulous process is still used today to create the optical fiber backbone of today’s telecommunications networks. To learn more about the OVD process, check out this video.