EuroWire November 2020

Transatlantic cable

powder or binding agent, spatters, porosities or insufficient heat – that can result in defective parts. “One of the fundamental challenges for additive manufacturing is that you’re caring about things that occur on length-scales of tens of microns and happening in microseconds, and caring about that for days or even weeks of build time,” said ORNL’s Luke Scime, principal investigator for Peregrine. “Because a flaw can form at any one of those points, at any one of those times, it becomes a challenge to understand the process and to qualify a part.” Standard cameras were used in the research, ranging from 4 to 20 megapixels, and installed so they produce images of the print bed at each layer. Peregrine produces a common and transferable image database and will run on a single high-powered laptop or desktop computer. ORNL researchers stress that the Peregrine software will be machine-agnostic, and available to all printer manufacturers. Peregrine is being tested on multiple printers at ORNL and is part of the Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR) demonstration programme to design, build and operate a nuclear micro-reactor using rapid advanced manufacturing. Major NY employers have joined forces for equality in the workplace The New York Jobs CEO Council is a new group of leaders from major US companies, aimed at increasing the hiring of individuals from minority communities in New York. The group wants to hire 100,000 traditionally underserved people from low-income black, Latino and Asian communities by 2030, bringing them into stable jobs with long-term career pathways. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co; Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM; and Accenture CEO Julie Sweet will co-chair the group. Other involved companies include Amazon.com Inc, Google, Microsoft Corp and Goldman Sachs. In the wake of the anti-racism protests in the middle of the year, US companies came under increasing pressure to do more to provide minority groups with access to opportunities. The protests were compounded by data that revealed minorities were disproportionately represented in coronavirus deaths, and that lower-income communities in the USA were, economically, particularly hard hit. “Today’s economic crisis is exacerbating economic and racial divides, and exposing systemic barriers to opportunity,” said Mr Dimon, in an opinion piece that was co-authored with Félix V Matos Rodríguez, the chancellor of the City University of New York, adding that often even high-achievers across New York were not given opportunities by the city’s top employers. “Young people in low-income and minority communities feel this failure the most. Unless we actively work to close the gap, COVID-19 will make matters worse.” The New York Jobs CEO Council will be led by Dr Gail Mellow, who most recently served as president of LaGuardia Community College. “Access to quality education and training for in-demand jobs is key to creating economic opportunity for youth and workers in New York,” said Dr Mellow. The workplace

“Our mission is to ensure people in New York’s most vulnerable communities can access the skills that they need to pursue promising career pathways, and benefit from the city’s economic recovery.” Carmine Di Sibio, global chairman and CEO of EY (formerly Ernst & Young), commented, “As a life-long New York area resident I have seen the vast evolution of the job market in our area, but in recent years the changes have been swifter, and more detrimental, to those in low-income communities. The pandemic has exacerbated this trend. We must do more to make sure that the region is a place for all to thrive. The NY Jobs Council will help all New Yorkers get the training and skills they need to move up the economic ladder.” Governor Andrew M Cuomo said, “The new initiative will play an important role [in] connecting underserved communities with career resources and access to NewYork’s world-class educational institutions; helping ensure economic prosperity is a dream anyone can realise, no matter their zip code.” • Furukawa Electric Co Ltd (FEC) deployed a 6,912-fibre count cable into a 32mm (1.25") conduit at a data centre campus in North America. FEC warned that the high fill ratio is not recommended for outside plant deployments, but the owner of the campus network was willing to assume the risks associated with the deployment in anticipation of the benefits of a high fibre count. The deployment followed an experiment carried out by FEC at a facility in Japan, where the company installed a 6,912-fibre cable with an outer diameter of 29mm (1.14") in a 200m (696 ft) conduit with three 90° curves and an inner diameter of 32mm. FEC reported that its engineers confirmed a maximum pulling tension of 372N (84lb), which the company says is well below the maximum pulling tension of 2,700N (600lb) specified for the cable. “The FEC 6,912-fibre optic cable at least doubled the fibre count possible in a 1.25" conduit,” said FEC’s Ichiro Kobayashi. • MetroNet completed deployment of a citywide fibre network in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, claiming that completion of the project, which demanded the installation of 4.4 million feet of fibre, “makes Lexington the largest ‘gigabit city’ in the US.” MetroNet also launched fibre deployments in neighbouring communities in Nicholasville, Versailles and Richmond, where, the company says, “tens of thousands” of residential and business customers have signed for the service. • Xplornet Communications Inc closed its agreement to acquire F6 Networks, a fibre network services provider based in New Brunswick, Canada. The deal expands Xplornet’s reach into the maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where F6 Networks provided services to enterprise and business customers via a 1,600km fibre backbone network. • According to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Verizon Wireless topped the bidding list in the Auction 105 spectrum sale. Bidding as Verizon Wireless Network Procurement, the mobile telco bid a total of $1.894 billion for 557 Priority Access Licenses (PALs). The second highest bidder in financial terms – though the leading bidder in terms of PALs won – was Wetterhorn Wireless, an affiliate of the satellite TV Dish Network. Wetterhorn paid $912.9 million for 5,492 licences. Short fibre stories

Gill Watson Features Editor

40

www.read-eurowire.com

November 2020