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Fire resistant optical cables with special plastic coated fibers
Author(s) -
Suzuki H.,
Tsujita T.,
Shamoto N.,
Inada K.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.760291708
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , coating , carbonization , shrinkage , fiber , optical fiber , fire test , plastic clad silica fiber , polymer , optical fiber cable , plastic optical fiber , fiber optic sensor , optics , scanning electron microscope , physics
It is important to prevent transmission loss increase of optical fiber cables during a fire and fire fighting. One of the main reasons for the loss increase in a fire is the expansion and shrinkage of polymers used in optical fiber cables. The authors have developed a fire resistant optical fiber cable by studying the behavior of coating materials and coated fibers at high temperature. Polymer types investigated are thermoplastics, engineering plastics, and UV cured plastics. The fire resistant optical fibers are coated with a polymer which rapidly produces a carbonized layer by exposure to heat. The rapid carbonizing has the effect of reducing expansion and shrinkage. Besides the coating, the coated fiber is surrounded by carbon yarn to prevent breakage of the fiber. The fire resistant optical fiber cable passed the fire test at 840°C for 30 minutes and VTFT specified IEEE 383, without any breakage of the fibers. The optical loss of the fibers scarcely changed during the tests and after the tests. This paper presents the studies of coating materials and coated fibers at high temperature, the structure and properties of the coated fiber and characteristics of the fire resistant optical fiber cable.