Loose Tube Fiber Cable

Loose tube and tight buffered.

Loose tube fiber cable.

They protect the fiber core cladding and coating by enclosing everything within semi rigid protective sleeves or tubes. The gel within the loose tube construction stops the penetration of water and keeps it away from the fiber. Between them there are several common denominators like the fact that both have in their interior a strengthening member of sorts that can be made of stainless steel in the form of wire strands aramid yarn or gel filled sleeves. Each however is designed for very different environments.

Both contain a type of strengthening member such as aramid yarn stainless steel wire strands or gel filled sleeves. Fiber optic cables are constructed in two ways. Loose tube cables are designed for harsh environment conditions in the outdoors. Tight buffered and loose tube fiber are the two styles of constructions fiber optic cables offered.

Their designs utilize 250µm fibers in both central multi loose tube constructions ranging in fiber counts from 2 to 288. From the picture below we can see that loose tube fiber holds more than one optical fiber each individually. Loose tube cables the older of the two cable types are specifically designed for harsh outdoor environments. But there are two basic styles of fiber optic cable construction.

Loose tube fiber and tight buffered fiber. Fiber optic cable is available in many physical variations such as single and multiple conductor constructions aerial and direct burial styles plenum and riser cables etc. The configuration of loose tube cable comprises of a coated fiber placed within a loose tube which is filled with water resistant gel to protect fiber from tension and stresses caused by such harsh environment as moisture and a wide operation temperature range from thermal shock to ice loading.