HCS® Industrial Graded-Index and Step-Index Fiber Optic Cable Selection Guide

Indoor and outdoor optical fiber cables for use in Substation Automation, Factory Automation, Industrial Ethernet, HVDC Systems, and Power Electronics.

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Industrial Fiber Optic Cable Selection Guide Video Transcript:

Hi, my name’s Pete Suttmeier with OFS Specialty Photonics division in Avon, Connecticut. And here’s what’s new in my world. I’m here to talk to you about our newly released Cable Selection Guide for Industrial Cables that is available to you online.

When you’re trying to decide on which fiber optic cable to choose for an application. You have many choices of various constructions and fiber types of as has made this step easier for you. With the help of our new cable selection guide, which consists of cables for industrial applications, what the selection guide is designed to do is to make your job easier to determine the most appropriate and cost-effective cable for your project or installation. The selection guide is going to focus on the office industrial multimode fiber optic cables that are designed for, and common in, many factories and substations, as well as other harsh environment applications.

For those of you who work in industrial environments, whether it be a steel mill, paper mill, a substation, or any type of harsh environment, the HCS product line is ideal for you for many reasons. Unlike traditional fibers, the primary fiber coating makes bonds to the fiber and enhances the strength during the draw or production process. Additionally, because the coating remains on the glass during the termination process, the fiber maintains its inherent strength. This makes it unique in that there is never bare glass exposed to the environment such as humidity, dirt, and dust. Those environmental factors are all known to detract from the strength of the fiber optics. When you’re considering the product line, here’s what you’re getting a rugged and robust construction resistance to abrasion in industrial chemicals. Reliable and repeatable termination process. A short learning curve for terminations. So selection considerations include extreme temperatures of Florida, Arizona, to the frigid temperatures of the Canadian tundra or Alaska. Humidity also plays a factor in states like Texas and Louisiana. You will also consider installation pull strength, the compressive strength of the cable. What kind of weight can the cable bear during the installation?

The first page here we have 62.5 micron cables, which are indoor zipcord cables for data center type applications. Indoor outdoor cables which can be used for either these are breakout cables and all the outdoor cables will have a water block in the cable as well as some of them will have a glass armor for road and deterring because you’re going to deter the road they’re trying to chew through the cable.

And looking at our 200 micron step index cable from simplex to zip cords to breakouts through indoor applications, we have riser rated we have plenum rated, we have indoor outdoor cables. And we also have cables that are designed strictly for outdoor applications. Again, with the water block, as you see at the bottom here, we have a schematic which shows the termination process of a typical O of this connector.

First, we’re going to remove the cable jacket, then we’re going to strip the fiber. Then we’re going to crimp the connector on, and then we’re going to cleave the glass. And for a pristine finish on the end of the connector. What I’ll do in my next talk is share with you information on the connector systems that go along with the cables we just talked about. And that’s what’s new in my world.

Thank you.

More Resources

>> OFS Optical Cables

>> Fiber Optic FAQ Guide


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