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Cleveland, OH USA and Fulda Germany: January 4, 2021.

COTSWORKS is pleased to announce its 15th anniversary as a leading global design and manufacturer of rugged optical components and subsystems for harsh environment applications.

COTSWORKS designs, manufactures, and integrates optical components into avionics, vetronics, and associated system-level products to meet Mil/Aero, OEM, and other market requirements. The company was founded in 2006, in an unheated garage in Beachwood, OH with a business goal of ruggedizing commercial-off-the shelf opto-electronic modules utilizing used test equipment purchased from its primary competitor at the time. Fifteen years later, COTSWORKS is the largest company/division within the rugged fiber optic communication market, with nearly 100 employees in 2 locations serving a worldwide customer base.

“COTSWORKS has grown in staff, factory footprint, product line, and value-creation over the past decade and a half,” says founder and CEO, Ken Applebaum. “Our focus continues to be on helping OEMs add fiber optic connectivity to their products, and then supporting them and their customers in the implementation of those products into Mil/Aero networks.”

The company has generated $100M+ in revenue and delivered over 600,000 simplex and complex units across 20,000 shipments to commercial and military customers around the world since its founding.