July 25, 2006 Hickory, NC -- Corning Cable Systems, part of Corning Inc.'s Telecommunications segment, has added another product to its portfolio of gel-free outdoor cables. SST-UltraRibbon Gel-Free cable is a high-fiber-count outdoor ribbon cable in which dry water-blocking materials have completely replaced the gels previously used to provide a 100 percent gel-free cable. The cable is available in fiber counts of 288, 360, and 432.
Customers receive multiple benefits from the gel-free design, which uses a field-proven super-absorbent polymer technology. These benefits include reduced cable preparation time (more than one hour per end-to-end splice point in 432-fiber designs), quicker network deployment for capturing revenues, removal of gel-cleaning solvents from the workplace, reduced mass-fusion splicer maintenance, and elimination of the need for cable damming procedures typically used for preventing gel from entering closures from cable ends, says the company.
The patented SST-UltraRibbon Gel-Free Cable design is fully compliant to the ICEA outside plant cable standard and Telcordia GR-20-CORE Issue 2 requirements. According to Corning Cable, the cable has also been subjected to a battery of additional testing well beyond the requirements in industry standards to ensure the gel-free design is fit for use in the extremes of the outside plant environment. It is able to fit in 1.25-inch inner diameter or larger inner ducts. Dielectric and armored jacket options are available.
