Technical article
May 2014
59
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These results suggest that jetting cables
with slip additives lead to more than a 50
per cent reduction in COF over the dry
control.
COF performances of the EXP samples
are comparable to the lubed control
cables. Increasing the additive level by
one per cent does not lead to significant
improvement in COF performance.
Figure 5
shows the simulated jetting
distances obtained from the COF
calculated in cable testing. As expected,
lower COF leads to longer jetting
distances. The simulations clearly highlight
the advantage of utilising slip additives, as
they can achieve about twice the jetting
distance over the dry control, and similar
jetting distances as the lubed cable.
The jetting distance of the EXP cables are
similar to the lubed cable, thus potentially
eliminating the need to utilise external
lubricants during installation.
This can make pulling the cable through
ducts easier and eliminate the need to use
lubricants during cable jetting.
4 Conclusions
This paper presents a way of reducing the
COF of an HDPE jacket that is commonly
used for fibre optic jacketing applications.
First lab scale testing was done on
compression moulded plaques with two
different slip additives to show that using a
combination of both the slip additives has
a synergistic effect on COF reduction.
Testing of COF during cable installation
on dummy fibre optic cable showed that
addition of slip additives can lead to
double the COF reduction and increase in
jetting distance over dry control cable. This
can potentially eliminate use of lubricants
during jetting installation and improve
ease of pulling cable during installation.
n
5 Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge
the efforts of the people at Plumattez Inc
for conducting the cable COF testing,
which was critical to bring out the value
of lower COF formulations during cable
installation.
6 References
1 New Design of Thinner, Low-Friction Indoor
Drop Cable for MDUs. Masakazu Takami, Itaru
Sakabe, Hiroki Ishikawa, Hiroyuki Sotome,
Katsuyuki Aihara, Yohei Suzuki, Masayoshi
Yamano, Mitsumasa Seita, Takayasu Yamauchi
and Masahiro Hamada. Optical Fibre and Cable
Division, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
244-8588, Japan. 58
th
International Wire and Cable
Symposium
2 Fibre Optic Cable Assemblies for Space Flight
Applications: Issues and Remedies, Melanie
Ott, Jeannette Plante, Swales Aerospace NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center 19
th
February,
1997, SAE international/American, Institute of
Aeronautics and Astronautics and presented at
the World Aviation Congress in October 1997
3 Fibre Cable Design Considerations for the Pending
RUS PE-90 Spec Revision, Draka Communications,
Association of Communication Engineers School,
5/8/2008
4 Development and Challenge to Realise Ultra
High Density Loose Tube Cable Optimized for
Microduct Use, Yoshio Hashimoto, Takayuki
Kubo, Naoki Okada and Nobuyuki Misono,
Telecommunication
Cable
Research
&
Development Dept, Telecommunication Cable
System Division, Fujikura Ltd, 55
th
International
Wire and Cable Symposium
5 Electrical cable having a surface with reduced
coefficient of friction, Randy D Kummer, et al,
Southwire Company, US 7,411,129 B2, 2008
6 Multi-layer oriented polypropylene films with low
COF skins, Meivil B Clamson, et al. Mobil Oil Corp,
US 4,578,316, 1986
7 Slip and anti-block additives: surface medication
for film and sheet, Jennifer Markarian, Plastics,
Additives and Compounding, Volume 9 (6), 32–35
(2007)
8 Ultra-High-Molecular-Weight Functional Siloxane
Additives in Polymer. Effect on Processing and
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G Pape and Vivian B John. Journal of Vinyl and
Additive Technology, 6 (1), 7-19 (2000)
This paper is courtesy of the IWCS
Symposium, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA,
November 2013.
▲
▲
Figure 5
:
Simulated jetting distance using coefficient of friction measured on Plumettaz cable testing
▲
▲
Figure 4
:
Coefficient of friction measured on cables at Plumettaz testing. EXP1 and EXP2 are cables made with 1.25
per cent and 2.25 per cent of additives
Coefficient of Friction
Control
Control lubed
EXP1
EXP2
Control
Control lubed
EXP1
EXP2
Jetting Distance (m)
