Optical fiber coating and composition with UV-absorbing additive

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10640654-B2
Application number	US-201615352057-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 15, 2016
Priority date	Dec 7, 2015
Publication date	May 5, 2020
Grant date	May 5, 2020

Abstract

A coating composition containing a radiation-curable component, a photoinitiator, and a UV absorber is described. The coating composition may be applied to an optical fiber and cured to form a coating. The UV absorber provides a protective function by inhibiting unintended curing of the coating that may occur upon exposure of the fiber to UV light during fiber processing. The spectral overlap of the photoinitiator and UV absorber is minimized to permit efficient photoinitiation of the curing reaction over one or more wavelengths. Photoinitiation may be excited by an LED source with a peak emission wavelength in the range from 360 nm-410 nm.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An optical fiber coating composition comprising:
a base coating composition comprising a first radiation-curable component that is monofunctional, a second radiation-curable component that is multifunctional, a non-radiation curable monomer or oligomer with one or more of urethane, urea, thiourethane, and thiourea groups, and a photoinitiator; and
a UV absorber in a concentration relative to the base coating composition of 1.5 pph to 4.0 pph;
the photoinitiator is capable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation having a wavelength longer than 390 nm; and
the UV absorber is essentially incapable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation having a wavelength longer than 390 nm but is capable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation over a continuous set of wavelengths shorter than 390 nm that extends over at least 50 nm.

2. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said first radiation-curable component comprises an acrylate.

3. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said first radiation-curable component comprises a caprolactone acrylate.

4. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said second radiation-curable component comprises a polyacrylate.

5. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said first radiation-curable component comprises an ethoxylated (8) nonylphenol acrylate.

6. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said second radiation-curable component lacks urethane and urea groups.

7. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said second radiation-curable component includes an ethylenically unsaturated group and a polyol group.

8. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said first radiation-curable component is present in said coating composition in an amount in the range from 50 wt %-85 wt %.

9. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 8 , wherein said second radiation-curable component is a bifunctional monomer, said bifunctional monomer being present in said coating composition in an amount in the range from 5 wt %-20 wt %.

10. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said first radiation-curable component comprises an isobornyl acetate.

11. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 ,
wherein the first radiation-curable component comprises an ethoxylated (8) nonylphenol acrylate, a caprolactone acrylate, an isobornyl acetate; and
wherein the second radiation-curable component comprises a tripropylene glycol diacrylate.

12. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein said UV absorber includes a moiety derived from benzophenone, benzotriazole, triazine, or substituted forms thereof.

13. The optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 , wherein the concentration of the UV absorber relative to the base coating composition is 2.0 pph to 4.0 pph.

14. The cured product of the optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 .

15. An optical fiber comprising the cured product of the optical fiber coating composition of claim 1 .

16. A method of making an optical fiber comprising:
drawing an optical fiber from a preform;
applying a coating composition to said optical fiber; said coating composition comprising:
a base coating composition comprising a first radiation-curable component that is monofunctional, a second radiation-curable component that is multifunctional, a non-radiation curable monomer or oligomer with one or more of urethane, urea, thiourethane, and thiourea groups, and a photoinitiator; and
a UV absorber in a concentration relative to the base coating composition of 1.5 pph to 4.0 pph; and

curing said coating composition, said curing includes exposing said coating composition to light provided by an LED, said LED having a peak emission wavelength in the range from 360 nm 410 nm;
the photoinitiator is capable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation having a wavelength longer than 390 nm; and
the UV absorber is essentially incapable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation having a wavelength longer than 390 nm but is capable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation over a continuous set of wavelengths shorter than 390 nm that extends over at least 50 nm.

17. A method of making an optical fiber comprising:
drawing an optical fiber from a preform;
applying a primary coating composition to said optical fiber, said primary coating composition comprising:
a base coating composition comprising a first radiation-curable component and a photoinitiator; and
a UV absorber in a concentration relative to the base coating composition of than 1.5 pph to 4.0 pph; and
the photoinitiator is capable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation having a wavelength longer than 390 nm;
the UV absorber is essentially incapable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation having a wavelength longer than 390 nm but is capable of absorbing ultraviolet radiation over a continuous set of wavelengths shorter than 390 nm that extends over at least 50 nm;

curing said primary coating composition, said curing includes exposing said primary coating composition to light provided by an LED, said LED having a peak emission wavelength longer than 390 nm;
applying a secondary coating composition to the optical fiber over the cured primary coating; and
curing the secondary coating composition with Hg UV emitting lamps that emit UV radiation having wavelengths that the UV absorber of the primary coating composition is capable of absorbing.

18. The method of claim 17 ,
the base coating composition further comprises a second radiation-curable component that is multifunctional, a non-radiation curable monomer or oligomer with one or more of urethane, urea, thiourethane, and thiourea groups; and
the first radiation-curable component is monofunctional.

19. The method of claim 17 ,
the UV absorber comprises one or more of: avobenzone, octocrylene, 2-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-6-dodecyl-4-methylphenol, and the following compounds of the general formulas (i) and (ii):

20. The method of claim 17 ,
the UV absorber comprises avobenzone, octocrylene, or a blend thereof.

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Derosa Michael Edward
• Fabian Michelle Dawn
• Logunov Stephan Lvovich
• Matthews James Robert
• Ocampo Manuela

Classifications

• B29D11/00663

  Production of light guides · CPC title

• C03B37/025

  from reheated softened tubes, rods, fibres or filaments {, e.g. drawing fibres from preforms (draw-down of tubes, rods or preforms to reduced diameter preforms C03B37/0124)} · CPC title

• C03C25/106

  Single coatings · CPC title

• C09D4/00 Primary

  Coating compositions, e.g. paints, varnishes or lacquers, based on organic non-macromolecular compounds having at least one polymerisable carbon-to-carbon unsaturated bond {; Coating compositions, based on monomers of macromolecular compounds of groups C09D183/00 - C09D183/16} · CPC title

• G02B6/02395

  Glass optical fibre with a protective coating, e.g. two layer polymer coating deposited directly on a silica cladding surface during fibre manufacture (G02B6/02052, G02B6/02057, G02B6/024, G02B6/032, G02B6/105, G02B6/14 take precedence; coating on fibre gratings G02B6/02104; multilayer core or cladding G02B6/036; reinforcing splice joints G02B6/2558; optical cables, i.e. comprising protective structures external to the protective coating such as a jacket or plural coated optical fibres G02B6/44; coating of glass to obtain optical fibres C03C25/104) · CPC title