Angular-Cavity Flat Drop Cable for Easy Fiber Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional optical-fiber drop cables face challenges in easy access and sealing, with external recesses leading to potential cable failure and increased manufacturing complexity, while internal components like yarns or plastic components complicate manufacturing and increase costs.
Innovation Solution
A flat drop cable design featuring an angular longitudinal cavity with upper and lower vertices, allowing manual tearing for easy access to optical fibers, and a polymeric jacket with reduced thickness at these vertices to facilitate handling, along with embedded strength members for robustness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If external recesses or internal components (yarns, plastic components) are added to conventional optical-fiber drop cables to facilitate access, then ease of operation improves, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cable jacket incorporates localized薄弱 sections (reduced thickness regions) at specific positions where access is needed. These local modifications create predetermined tear initiation points without affecting the overall integrity or design of the cable structure, enabling easy access while maintaining simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable jacket is pre-formed with reduced thickness sections during manufacturing, creating predetermined tear initiation points before the cable is installed. This preliminary preparation allows users to easily access the optical fibers by simply applying finger pressure to tear the jacket at these pre-weakened locations, eliminating the need for complex access mechanisms.
2Ease of operation
If external recesses are added to conventional optical-fiber drop cables to facilitate access, then ease of operation improves, but reliability deteriorates due to potential cable failure
Solution Approach 1:
The cable jacket has non-uniform thickness with localized thin sections only at the positions where access is required. The majority of the cable jacket maintains its full thickness and structural integrity, ensuring that the cable remains reliable and resistant to failure while still providing easy access points where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable jacket is effectively segmented into different thickness zones: thin sections at the access points for easy tearing, and thick sections elsewhere for structural strength. This segmentation allows the cable to provide both ease of access and structural reliability simultaneously.
3Ease of operation
If internal components like yarns or plastic components are added to conventional optical-fiber drop cables, then ease of operation improves, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes unnecessary internal components (yarns, plastic components) from the cable structure. Instead of adding these extra elements, the solution uses the cable jacket itself with localized thickness variations to provide access functionality, thereby simplifying the manufacturing process and reducing material requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable jacket is manufactured with localized variations in thickness only at the positions where access is needed, rather than incorporating additional internal components throughout the cable. This approach simplifies manufacturing by modifying the jacket itself rather than assembling multiple components.
4Strength
If conventional cable jacket thickness is maintained throughout, then cable strength is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in manual tearing
Solution Approach 1:
The cable jacket has different thicknesses at different locations: thin sections at the vertices where manual tearing is needed, and thick sections in between to maintain overall cable strength. This local variation in quality allows the cable to be both strong and easy to open when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The cable jacket is pre-formed with reduced thickness sections during manufacturing, creating predetermined tear initiation points. This preliminary action of thinning specific areas enables easy manual tearing at those locations without compromising the overall strength of the cable jacket.
Data Source
AI summary
An exemplary flat drop cable includes a polymeric cable jacket that defines an angular longitudinal cavity having an upper vertex and a lower vertex, such as a rhombus-like cross-sectional shape with distinctive upper and lower vertices. One or more optical fibers are positioned lengthwise within the angular longitudinal cavity, and typically two parallel strength members are embedded in the polymeric cable jacket opposite one another relative to the angular longitudinal cavity. The distinctive upper and lower vertices reduce the polymeric jacketing above and below the angular longitudinal cavity, which facilitates hand tearing of the cable jacket to access the one or more optical fibers.