EoW January 2014

Technical article

5 References

200 micron newmaterial fibre attn at 150°C, 180°C and 200°C

[1] E J Murphy, W W Cattron and J J Kelly, “Improved Heat resistant UV Cure Compositions for Optical Fibre Applications”, 57 th IWCS Proceedings (2008) [2] D A Simoff, A A Stolov and C R Ciardiello, “New Optical Fibre Coating Designed for High Temperature Applications”, 58 th IWCS Proceedings (2009) [3] V A Kozlov and E J Murphy, “New UV Cure Heat Resistant Coatings and Performance Durability of Mid-Temp Optical Fibres”, 59 th IWCS Proceedings (2010) [4] B Overton and L White, “Aging Studies of High Temperature Coatings”, 59 th IWCS Proceedings (2010)

Mean strength, kpsi

Exposure time, hours

▲ ▲ Figure 6 : Fibre strength test for newmaterial single coat optical fibre samples at 150°C and 180°C

The experiment at 200°C will be continued for more data. Fibre strength was measured by a tensile tester at 500mm/min with a gauge length of 0.5 metres. The mean strength, the strength at 50% failure probability in the Weibull plot, of aged fibre samples is plotted in Figure 6 . It shows the new material single coat fibre strength after temperature aging at 150°C and 180°C. Fibre strength did not drop after 1,000 hours of elevated temperature exposure for all samples. All of these results demonstrate good long-term stability for temperatures below 180°C for optical fibres made with the newly developed coating material. 4 Conclusions A new mid-temperature acrylate type coating material was developed. Optical fibre samples made with a single coat layer of the new material (coating diameter of 200 μm) were tested in dynamic and isothermal TGA tests demonstrating superior performance in comparison with the existing commercial mid-temperature acrylate type coatings. Long-term temperature aging tests in normal atmosphere at temperatures up to 200°C demonstrated stability of optical fibre attenuation and fibre mechanical strength. n The paper is courtesy of the 61 st IWCS International Cable and Connectivity Symposium, Providence, Rhode Island, USA, November 2012.

The heating rates were 5°C/min, 10°C/min, 15°C/min, and 20°C/min during these tests. Figure 2 shows TGA test plots for optical fibre samples made with single coat 200 μm OD of new and commercial coatings. The results show better thermal stability of the new coating in fibre format. The weight loss results of fibre with the new coating tested isothermally at 150, 180 and 200°C are shown in Figure 3 . The comparative plot of thermal stability of 200-micron single coat fibre with new and commercial coatings is shown in Figure 4 . Under isothermal heat aging at 150°C for more than 1,000 hours, the new coating again shows superior performance.

3 New coating material fibre sample tests

Attenuation temperature sensitivity was measured for temperatures of 150°C, 180°C and 200°C. done manually at room temperature after particular exposure to elevated tem- peratures, the measurement procedures might contribute some ‘noise’ in the test data. Results of the attenuation test at 1550nm wavelength for single mode fibres with a single layer of new coating material at several temperatures are shown in Figure 5 . Because measurements were

Corning Incorporated Corning NewYork USA Tel : +1 607 974 9227

Email : kozlovva@corning.com Website : www.corning.com

Attenuation below 180°C is low and stable.

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January 2014