OFS Expands Outside Plant and Premise Cable Product Lines to Include New Rollable Ribbon Technology

OFS is pleased to introduce two new cable product families enabled by the company’s new fiber optic, rollable ribbon technology.

First, OFS is expanding its field-proven AccuTube® “ribbon in loose tube” cable product line by offering the new AccuTube+ Rollable Ribbon (RR) Fiber Optic Cable. Available with 1728 and 3456 fibers, these cables can be installed in common 11/4” and 2” ducts, respectively. The AccuTube product line is well-known in the industry for ruggedness, fiber protection, ease of installation and ready accessibility to fiber ribbons.

According to Eric Whitham, OSP Cable Product Manager, “Users can enjoy the significant time and cost savings benefits of 12-fiber mass fusion splicing, as compared with single fiber splicing, while getting the highest fiber density. In outside plant (OSP) installations, customers can double the fiber count viable for a particular duct size.”

In addition, OFS is introducing 144 and 288 fiber rollable ribbon versions of its popular indoor/outdoor AccuRiser™ Fiber Optic Cable. These cables bring the triple benefits of mass fusion splicing, compact size and excellent flexibility for tough indoor routing applications.

As fiber counts rise, but duct space and cable storage space remain at a premium, these smaller, more flexible cables can be excellent alternatives to more traditional cable technologies.

In a rollable ribbon cable, 12 fibers are connected intermittently by matrix material to form a very flexible ribbon, allowing the ribbons to be rolled into very tight bundles, doubling the fiber density of a cable. These fibers can then be unrolled into a ribbon that can be spliced with traditional flat ribbon machines and procedures.

Traditional flat optical fiber ribbons have been deployed since the early 1980s. The optical fibers are held in place by a somewhat rigid matrix material and placed in different cable structures. These ribbons are easily stackable and spliced in cables, but are not as space efficient within the cable structure as rollable ribbon. Rollable ribbon technology improves fiber density in cables retaining the splicing efficiency so valued by ribbon cable users.

These cables will be on display at the ISE Expo at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL, September 12-14, and CAPRE’s Fifth Annual Washington, D.C. & Mid-Atlantic Data Center Summit at the Embassy Suites Dulles – North/Loudoun, Ashburn, VA, September 12-14, or contact your local OFS representative for more information.

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