The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 17, 1998
Filed:
Apr. 30, 1997
Parbhubhai Dahyabhai Patel, Dunwoody, GA (US);
Phillip Maurice Thomas, Suwanee, GA (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
An optical cable 10 includes a core tube 120 containing optical fibers 101 that extend along the longitudinal axis 105--105 of the cable, and a plastic jacket 160 that encloses the core tube. The cable has a high tensile stiffness which is provided by load sharing between a pair of rigid strength rods 141, 142 and a flexible strength tape 130. The strength rods are coupled to the plastic jacket so that they receive tensile loads applied to the plastic jacket. The strength rods also have a compressive stiffness for inhibiting contraction of the plastic jacket when it is cooled. The tape is made from an array of flexible strands 131 that are woven into a single unit, which is also coupled to the plastic jacket. The flexible strands are woven in such a manner that they exhibit minimum undulation in the longitudinal direction. More particularly, the percent excess length of the flexible strands (.epsilon..sub.s) is less than the percent excess length of the optical fiber (.epsilon..sub.f) plus one percent i.e., .epsilon..sub.s <(.epsilon..sub.f +1%). Accordingly, when a load is applied to the cable jacket, it is resisted by the strength tape after minimum elongation of the cable. Additionally, the tensile stiffness of the flexible strength tape is greater than the overall tensile stiffness of the rigid strength rods so that the greater portion of an applied tensile load is carried by the strength tape.