June 5, 2006 Research Triangle Park, NC -- Sumitomo Electric Lightwave today introduced what it claims is the industry's first ribbon drop cable for the last drop to the premises or home. Prompted by carriers' growing interesting in ribbon products, Sumitomo says it designed the cable to allow for mass fusion splicing, quicker and easier gel-free cable entry, and faster fiber access through easy-peel ribbon technology, which increases the speed and number of both fusion splicing and connectorized terminations.
The gel-free ribbon drop cable is available with either 12-fiber PureAccess bend-insensitive singlemode fiber (SMF) or new bend-insensitive 3x4 modular ribbon, which improves handling and enables more cost-effective deployment of FTTH/FTTP four-fiber branching network topologies, say Sumitomo representatives. The incorporation of bend-insensitive fiber improves flexibility; with a bend-radius of half that of standard SMF ribbon, bend-insensitive fiber enables tighter routing and minimizes the space within terminals, hubs, and optical network terminals (ONTs). The use of ribbon in terminals improves reliability, handling, and storage by eliminating buffer tube issues, such as kinking, stranding buffer tube memory, and shrinkage, contends the company.
As the final link to the end-user, the ribbon drop cable is compatible with standard multi-fiber connectors (MFCs) for plug-and-play terminal applications, ideal for terminal tether, and may be used for both aerial and buried FTTx applications.
To improve the ease of both mass fusion splicing and connectorized terminations, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave has incorporated its proprietary control process and "Easy Split & Peel" technology to construct hassle-free splittable and peelable ribbon, which eliminates the need for special tools, claim company representatives. The dry ribbon cable design allows the installer or technician to bypass the cable cleaning procedure and easily peel back the ribbon, by hand, to expose the underlying fiber in preparation for connectorization or splicing. Sumitomo's ribbon technology ensures the fiber coating is protected, thereby guarding against fiber damage, mechanical abrasions, and shearing of fibers during splitting. The option of the 3x4 modular ribbon allows installers to branch off four fibers originating from the hub, terminal, or closure to mass splice to an existing ribbon cable or pre-connectorized fanout.