The Journey of Incom. From humble beginnings to the worldwide leader in commercial fused fiber optics.

Transcription

1 The Journey of Incom From humble beginnings to the worldwide leader in commercial fused fiber optics.

2 1971: With a tiny office in Sturbridge, MA and a fledgling staff of 4, INCOM is born. Entrepreneurial spirit, combined with a novel approach to fused fiber optics and a desire to innovate serve as the foundation of the company.

3 1972: Denying themselves a salary, the leaders of INCOM spend the first few years of business focusing on purchasing manufacturing equipment, establishing customer relationships, and building drums and draw flexible fiber for light applications. By the beginning of 1973, INCOM has manufactured its first fiberoptic faceplate, which becomes a core product for the company moving forward.

4 1976: After several years of building the business and slowly increasing sales, the unexpected loss of a major customer necessitates a financial overhaul. After painstaking negotiation, the Detarando family acquires a majority stake in the company and a new era for INCOM begins.

5 1978: Working with a dentist and capitalizing on the vast capabilities of the company s faceplates for Cathode Ray tubes (CRT), INCOM helps make dental light tips for UV curing a reality. In the decades to follow, INCOM becomes the most relied-upon manufacturer of light guides and eventually expands this technology to include light guides and tapers for endoscope illuminators.

6 1980: INCOM further develops a fiber optic CRT product that writes on photographic paper, allowing newspapers, books and magazines to be automatically phototypeset. This new technology becomes a mainstay for INCOM and all but eliminates the one-metal-letter-at-a-time approach to printing, paving the way for a modern-day printer technology.

7 1985: INCOM s foray into night vision is launched when they sign a license agreement with a major competitor to produce the small taper, IRIS, that goes into combat tanks. In the words of Anthony Detarando, our ability to stay diversified is what singlehandedly allowed us to stay alive.

8 1986: 1986 marks the development of the revolutionary and proprietary MEGAdraw process. Exclusive to INCOM, the MEGAdraw process results in the most blemish-free, low distortion, zeroshear fused fiber optic component available. Applications for this process today now include x-ray imaging, helmet-mounted displays, fiber optic magnifiers and image intensification.

9 1991& 1992 After experiencing record sales and profits during the late eighties and achieving their first million dollar month in August of 1991, Anthony Detarando s sons, Jay and Michael, join INCOM and begin to take an active and day-to-day role in the company, helping to identify and expand business opportunities.

10 1993 When the government ups its standards and tightens the specs on components for night vision goggle optics, INCOM s revolutionary and now patented MEGAdraw process answers the challenge. The U.S. military becomes a direct and long-term customer and today, INCOM s fiber optic components are used in night vision goggles, helmet-mounted displays and cameras, bioterrorism detection systems and biometric identity solutions.

11 1994: Incom paves the way for future success when they purchase a major competitor s fused fiber optics line. Not only does this eliminate a competitive threat, it opens the door to new markets and provides access to existing markets. INCOM now has the widest range of fused fiber optic products in the industry.

12 1996: Incom celebrates 25 years of innovation and continues to invest heavily in people, capabilities and technology.

13 2003: Incom manufactures the largest diameter zoom taper (200 millimeter) ever made. These tapers capture huge imaging areas with very high resolution, and represent a significant achievement for the company. Today, INCOM is the leading fiber optic taper supplier to the scientific marketplace, contributing to the advancement of x-ray crystallography in unprecedented ways.

14 2006: INCOM is awarded a prestigious Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation to facilitate the manufacturing of a microcapillary fiber optic faceplate. INCOM successfully develops a capillary plate with an area as large as 15 X 10 with capillaries as long as 12, exponentially expanding the number of analytic sites for genetic sequencing. Instead of taking many years to map the human genome, INCOM fiber optic technologies help shorten the time to months.

15 2010: The Department of Energy awards INCOM a small business innovative research grant to work in conjunction with their SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University, to produce a desktop-sized accelerator.

16 2011: INCOM continues to innovate by contributing key fiber optic components to the following fields: Medical & Dental x-ray: - Full Body Scans - Mammography - Panoramic & Intra-oral x-ray Defense: - Night vision goggles - Bio-terrorism detection systems - Heads-up and cockpit displays Scientific: - X-ray crystallography - DNA sequencing cameras Life Sciences: - DNA sequencing - Microwell plates - Microcapillary plates

17 2011 & Beyond Moving forward with the same unbridled passion with which the company began, INCOM continues to embrace innovation. Works in progress include: - Fiber optics that allow for the conversion of digital imaging - Ultrasonic fingerprinting - Digital dental x-raying - Fiber optic faceplates that enable keyboards to be dynamically programmable

18 Celebrating 40 years of innovation, success and achievement. Leading the way in fused fiber optics.