Multifiber subunit cable

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9690061-B2
Application number	US-201514750150-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2015
Priority date	Dec 14, 2009
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

A method of making a subunit cable includes providing at least two subunits along a process direction, each subunit comprising a plurality of optical fibers, compressing the subunits so that at least one of the subunits has a cross-section with a minor outside dimension and a major outside dimension, and the ratio of the minor dimension to the major dimension is less than 0.9, and extruding a subunit cable jacket around the subunits, wherein the subunits are compressed within the subunit cable jacket.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of making a subunit cable, comprising:
providing at least two subunits along a process direction, each subunit comprising a plurality of optical fibers;
compressing the subunits so that at least one of the subunits has a cross-section with a minor outside dimension and a major outside dimension, and the ratio of the minor dimension to the major dimension is less than 0.9; and
extruding a subunit cable jacket around the subunits, wherein the subunits are compressed within the subunit cable jacket,
wherein the at least two subunits comprises a first subunit and a second subunit, wherein for each optical fiber in the first subunit, there is a corresponding optical fiber in the second subunit of identical color and appearance,
wherein the first subunit comprises twelve optical fibers and the second subunit comprises twelve optical fibers.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ratio of minor outside dimension to major outside dimension is less than 0.8.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising paying off a tensile yarn strain-relief component, wherein the subunit cable jacket is extruded around the strain-relief component, and wherein the tensile yarns contact the subunits and the subunit cable jacket.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first subunit comprises twelve optical fibers and the second subunit comprises twelve optical fibers, and wherein a nominal outside diameter of the cable is about 3.5 mm or less.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the compressed subunits have a generally oval cross section.

Assignees

• Corning Optical Communications LLC
• Corning Digital Communications LLC

Inventors

• Hurley William Carl
• Navé Samuel Don

Classifications

• G02B6/4401

  Optical cables (glass fibres with a protective coating G02B6/02395) · CPC title

• G02B6/4434

  Central member to take up tensile loads · CPC title

• B29C47/02

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• G02B6/4411 Primary

  Matrix structure · CPC title

• G02B6/443

  Protective covering · CPC title