[PA-NJ Glassblowers] How Glass Fiber Optic Cables are Manufactured

[Tony Patti]

Since my last two PA-NJ emails were fun beverage advertisements involving
Hot Shops, 

I thought it would be good to switch to a more technical topic, the
manufacture of glass fiber optic cables.

 

In part because there was a pair of Verizon vans parked in front of my work
for two days this week,

It was really interesting being in that van and watching them prepare and
splice two 12-fiber ribbons together,

from two 432-strand fiber optic cables, which were running underground and
pulled up though a manhole,

as you can see in this photo.

 

cid:image001.jpg at 01CE9420.95CB8350

 

This 5 minute YouTube video gives a good overview of how a single fiber
optic cable is created.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6CqT4DuAVxs>
&v=6CqT4DuAVxs

This is NOT your standard soda-lime glass, these are quartz tubes fusing
together at 3500 F on a glass lathe.

 

 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6CqT4DuAVxs> 

 

And the inline furnace is at 3600 F, you can see the preform moving into it,
in this frame:

 



 

And at the end of the entire process, the finished fiber optic cable winding
onto a spool:

 



 


 

 

That video can be compared to the more detailed explanation, on this web
page:

 

http://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com/fiber-optic-resources/fiber-optic-white-
papers/How_are_Fiber_Optics_Made.aspx

 

and which contains the awesome diagram to the right.

Fiber Optic Tower

 

This web page has a more detailed diagram of the Glass Lathe and the MCVD
Gas Deposition System

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/fiber-optic5.htm

 

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/fiber-optic-fibercoreltd-pre-fab1.jpg

 

That diagram is nice, but the actual MCVD equipment looks a bit more
intimidating.

http://www.newtonhall.co.uk/sg.htm

 



 

Fiber optics have changed our world, allowing us to communicate faster and
farther

(and with the additional benefit of lightning immunity, which copper cables
do not have.)

 

This new era of communication has been anticipated for a while, in George
Gilder
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC0V9I?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=
B000FC0V9I&linkCode=xm2&tag=glassbloinfo-20> 's book "TELECOSM",

published in 2000, the subtitle is: "How Infinite Bandwidth will
Revolutionize Our World".

 

And that revolution, and the convergence of computers and communications, is
only possible because of GLASS!


Tony Patti
  
 <http://www.glassblower.info> www.glassblower.info
  
 <mailto:gaffer at glassblower.info> gaffer at glassblower.info

 <http://www.glassblower.info/qr-code.html> QR Code for Tony Patti -
www.glassblower.info

 

 

 

 

 

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