International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation

Oswald R Reh

Hans E Heinzer

Termination device for anchoring a fiber optic cable, especially in a fiber optic cable submarine signaling system wherein the cable must be periodically interrupted and anchored to the housing of a repeater, or the like. A central cable or strength member of steel, for example, is built into the cable along with a plurality of optical fibers. A compression block accepts the cable through an axial bore which flares out into a conical shape. A pressure cone has an axially slotted wall to form a plurality of tines which tend to compress radially inward against the strength member of the cable actually inserted therein when the cone is axially compressed into the conical cavity of the pressure block. Individual optical fiber passages through the compression block flare out from the small end of the conical cavity and pressure cone. The compression block fits into a cup of insulating material, the cable entering through a bore in the closed end of the cup. The insulating cup electrically isolates the compression block and pressure cone assembly which would normally be of a conductive metallic material from the housing of the repeater assembly, etc., into which the entire assembly is mechanically fitted. The pressure cone is held within the compression block by a circle of bolts and a torsion resisting bolt holds the compression block in the congruent cavity of the cup.

Fiber optic electromechanical submarine cable termination

A fluid-type penetrator or feed-through device particularly adapted for conveying an optical fiber in a fiber optic signaling arrangement through an interface wall separating environments of greatly different physical (especially pressure) and/or chemical properties. A clearance passage considerably larger than the optic fiber is bored through the bulkhead separating the two different environments, and a guidance sleeve having a central axial bore only slightly clearing the diameter of the optic fiber is inserted therein. Pressure plugs also containing axial clearance bores are provided at high and low pressure sides of the arrangement, the low pressure plug being inserted by means of screw threads. The high pressure plug on a corresponding side of the bulkhead is automatically forced into tighter engagement in the counterbore into which it is inserted. Both pressure plugs include sapphire orifice members which have the characteristic of providing very small clearance for inserted optic fibers. All clearances are sealed and bonded using a bubble-free, somewhat resilient bonding agent.

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Bonita, CA, United States of America

Oswald R Reh