The main component of optical fiber is glass fiber. The main component of glass fiber is high-purity silica. It is baked into an optical fiber preform at a temperature of 1500 degrees Celsius. After manufacturing the optical fiber preform, it is placed in a drawing frame. A 7,500-kilometer-long annealing tube is cleaned to prevent impurities and dust from falling onto the optical fiber and melted into a soft embryo at a high temperature of 2,200 degrees Celsius. After passing through the furnace, it can be continuously drawn out. The 1-meter-long annealing tube is gradually cooled to form a fiber with a diameter of 0.1 mm. The winding machine rotates to drive the fiber drawing and completes the optical fiber assembly. The optical fiber, made of glass fiber, can transmit optical signals over thousands of kilometers. Hundreds or thousands of optical fibers are combined to form an optical cable, which not only improves the fiber's strength but also greatly increases communication capacity.
This is the manufacturing process of optical fiber. What is produced is a thin glass optical fiber. If you melt the fiber, you will find that each optical cable is a transparent glass fiber when it is peeled off. It is very fragile and easy to break, but no matter how hard you pull, you can't pull any further. That's why, when splicing fibers, you often hear older people say that optical fibers cannot be bent and break easily. This is a characteristic of optical fiber.
Optical cable
In simple terms, an optical cable consists of multiple optical fibers passed through a post-processing sheath and protected layer by layer. This allows the optical fiber to transmit data in both indoor and outdoor environments without easily disconnecting, making it adaptable to various settings. As essential for high-speed data transmission, optical cables impact our lives. The most popular type is fiber-to-the-home (FTTH). While technically called fiber-to-the-home, it's actually a very thin optical cable known as sheathed optical cable. The main types of optical cables are: 6-core, 8-core, 12-core, 48-core, 72-core, 96-core, 144-core, 288-core, etc. 6, 8, 12, 24, and 48-core optical cables are the most commonly used.
The difference between optical fiber and optical cable: Generally speaking, optical fiber is an optical cable, which is a transmission medium. But strictly speaking, the two are different products. The difference between optical fiber and optical cable: Optical fiber is a thin, flexible medium that transmits light beams. Most optical fibers must be coated with several layers of protective structures before use. The coated cable is called an optical cable. Therefore, the optical fiber is the core of the optical cable and is protected by some auxiliary components and protective layers to form an optical cable.
Post time: Nov-24-2023
