Kaydon acquires electrical rotary joint company

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 7, 2000

Kaydon Corporation, the parent company of IDM Electronics is pleased to announce the acquisition of Focal Technologies, a leading supplier of electrical and fibre optic rotary joints.

Acquisition speeds the Slip Ring revolution IDM Electronics is building a reputation as one of the largest and fastest growing slip ring suppliers in Europe.

The market for its range of power and data units covers security, defence, aerospace, medical and a host of industrial applications.

There are many engineering problems where only slip rings can provide the solution.

For example, in an aerospace application, a heavy duty slip ring is used to transfer electrical energy to a propeller which has to be heated in icy conditions.

A careful choice of materials has increased product life considerably.

In a defence application, an electrical and optical interface provides the link between a vehicle body and a turret.

In industrial applications, there are slip rings for boom cameras, CCTV security cameras and heated rollers for packaging machines.

In the medical field, scanners demand faster data collection and in space, slip rings are needed to transfer electrical energy from solar panels to satellites.

As technology changes at an ever increasing pace, so do the demands on slip rings.

Now, Kaydon Corporation, the parent company of IDM Electronics is pleased to announce the acquisition of Focal Technologies, a leading supplier of electrical and fibre optic rotary joints.

The acquisition expands IDM's capabilities in rotary electrical and fibre optic signal transfer by combining Focal Technologies' extensive line of fibre optic rotary solutions with the existing slip-ring product lines.

Established in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia in 1983, Focal Technologies has developed a complete line of fibre optic rotary joints, designed to transmit signals across rotating interfaces.

Modulated laser light is projected onto a specially developed fibre that is able to collect sufficient light to enable a detector to pick up the signal.

This technology has great potential and is expected to be developed for a variety of application areas.

There is also a line of multiplexers to allow the combination of multiple electrical and/or fibre optic signals into a single high-speed fibre optic cable.

These devices and accompanying electrical slip rings have allowed Focal Technologies to develop a leading position in the offshore petroleum, oceanographic, seismic and maritime defence industries.

IDM will offer units based on the same technology to customers in the defence, aerospace, medical, security and general industrial sectors.

IDM Electronics has also recently introduced the VelocityTM line of high-speed rotary data links.

These are designed to transmit data from rotating platforms at data speeds of up to 2 Gbit/sec.

The VelocityTM FORJ, an Fibre Optic Rotary Joint for transferring high-speed digital data in Medical CT scanners, was co-developed with Focal Technologies.

"The Focal Technologies addition brings fibre optic products and capabilities which will further strengthen our position as a leading supplier of solutions for high speed digital data transfer on rotating equipment," said David Norman, Managing Director of IDM Electronics.

"Their specific market knowledge and product design expertise are perfectly matched with IDM's product and market development vision".