EW January 2011

technology news

Solutions for fibre optics At wire China 2010, PolyOne focused on its portfolio of solutions for optical fibres. The product family includes several grades of ECCOH™ and ECCOH™ PF low smoke and fume, zero-halogen (LSFOH) compounds, as well as OnColor™ and OnCap™ colourant and additive solutions. PolyOne Corp sees rising global demand for optical fibre is being led by China, Japan and Korea. In China, government stimulus funds promoting rural infrastructure and major construction programmes have significantly expanded the optical fibre market. In the past, optical fibre cables were mainly for outdoor use and, as such, did not require flame retardant sheathing materials. Increasingly, however, bandwidth providers are bringing fibre optics into buildings. These cables must not only be flame retardant, but must also contain materials that are low-smoke, low-fume, and non-halogenated (also called LSFOH, for Low Smoke and Fume, Zero Halogen). Responding to this trend, PolyOne developed a range of solutions for the FTTB and FTTH markets, called ECCOH™ and ECCOH™ PF compounds. Both product families are said to meet the requirements for LSFOH material use inside buildings, and are classified as a PolyOne Sustainable Solution. In addition to excellent flame retardance, these solutions offer low smoke and low toxicity benefits, and include the following features: ECCOH™ compounds meet tight buffering and sheathing requirements, offer low corrosion, very low shrinkage (less than 1%), • good mechanical strength to prevent fibre breakage, and low memory retention to ensure good attenuation properties ECCOH™ PF grades are recommended for mini-ducts through which fibre is routed. These compounds offer good flame • retardance, while an inherent stiffness allows easy installation and provides bend radius control OnCap™ anti-static compound enables optical fibres to be blown further. This compound can be coextruded as an internal • layer 0.5mm thick. A patent is pending on the application using LSFOH as an outer layer and antistatic slip compound as the internal layer Each ECCOH™ compound can also be provided with suitable OnColor™ colour concentrates to match specific requirements, with masterbatches available for other materials such as HDPE, PBT and TPU. PolyOne also offers OnCap™ UV additive and slip additive masterbatches suitable for FTTx applications. PolyOne Corp – USA Fax : +1 440 930 3064 Website : www.polyone.com

Advertorial on behalf of Decalub Bright ReflectiveWire Finish The GPS/PDH system in cleaning version is a novelty that brings a new dimension to wire cleaning process, benefiting from the unique PDH multi-function  technology, enabling an automatic control of crucial process parameters (pressure/temperature/ viscosity, compound injection speed and thermal stability). In cleaning operation, most of these parameters communicate together in an extremely sensitive and automatic multi-way interaction, providing drawn wire in bright glossy finish for plating quality, at high-speed, cleaned and polished to reflective appearance, in-line, with liquid compounds or semi-solid high-viscosity products containing anti-corrosion additives.

The GPS/PDH system is installed in the last draft of a drawing machine to clean drawn wire from lubricant contaminants. It simultaneously performs surface cleaning and polishing effect, providing a high level of cleanliness of dry drawn wire, without the need for aggressive chemicals, and it operates at all practical speeds at virtually zero energy consumption. The main reason behind this achievement has been the cost, wire quality and environment factors. The GPS/PDH wire cleaning system operates with a wide range of liquid and semi-solid lubricating

Wire cleaning by GPS/PDH system ▲ ▲

solutions in continuous IN and OUT motion, evacuating lubricant contaminants out of the compressed chamber in an open or closed circuit, completely eliminating wire tunnelling effect and pressure fluctuation, enabling the highest cleaning speed, up to 12m/s (2,400ft/min). A light draft performs wire cleaning and polishing (reflective finish) in a single pass, clean wire leaving the unit completely dry. The system is particularly recommended for cleaning applications of wires drawn in severe conditions, resulting in increased heat and burned lubricant tightly bound on the wire surface. The system is compact, and easy to install and to use. Decalub – France Fax : +33 1 60 20 20 21 Email : info@decalub.com Website : www.decalub.com

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EuroWire – January 2011