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Delivering
High-Speed Communications into Harsh
Environments
Reliable operation at 1000
feet below ground, while shrugging off cave-ins, proves that ruggedized
high-performance fiber optic cables excel at bringing the efficiency
of enterprise-wide communication into the field. For
those who believe that information is power, and who doesn’t
nowadays, extending an organization’s
knowledge base throughout the entire enterprise can’t help but
improve operations. Until recently, though, field operations were often
left out of the loop, as extending high-bandwidth communications
into harsh environments often proved impossible due to thermal
extremes, physical hazards,
and caustic chemicals.
However, advances in the design and manufacture of extremely rugged
fiber optic cables have now
enabled the successful installation of 10-Gigabit transmission links
in the most unlikely places such
as oil drilling platforms, electricity generating stations,
refineries, water treatment facilities, steel
mills, chemical processing plants and mining operations. The
experience of one world-leading coal
producing company exemplifies how plant managers can successfully
enlist ruggedized tight buffered
cables to help carry the efficiency of ERP communications into even
the most challenging work
environments.
Digging for solutions
Optical Cable Corporation (OCC) pioneered the design and production
of tight-buffered cables
for demanding field applications. Its ISO 9001:2000-registered
facility in Roanoke, Virginia, currently
manufactures a broad range of fiber optic cables for high bandwidth
transmission of data, video,
and audio communications, including cables for the most demanding
commercial, industrial and
military environments. Drawing on years of product development and
cable design experience, OCC’s
use of specially selected materials and its proprietary manufacturing
processes contribute to the
ruggedness of its products.
Ruggedized, tight-buffered fiber optic cable derives much of its
reliability and performance advantages
from its basic design. As opposed to loose-tube designs, which only
have one thin coating
surrounding each optical fiber, ruggedized tight-buffered fibers have
two. In loose tube cable designs,
the fiber coating is only 62 microns thick, providing minimal
mechanical and environment protection
to the glass fiber. In addition to the primary fiber coating, each
tight buffered fiber has a secondary
buffer that, together with the primary coating, reaches “heavy
weight” proportions such as
387 microns. This is over six times thicker than the primary coating
alone. In the breakout cable design,
there is yet another layer of protection. Each tight buffered fiber is
surrounded by aramid yarns
and a tight bound elastomeric jacket. Even at this sub-cable level,
the sub units are very crush resistant,
rugged, and able to withstand environmental extremes. Up
to speed underground With
the fiber optic cable installation at the CONSOL mine sites
complete, Prokop’s team could now take full advantage of the
company’s ERP system.
“Right now we’re running a combination of 100 Megabit
per
second on multi mode fiber and 1 Gigabit per second on single
mode fiber,” says Prokop. “Our maintenance crew can now
access all maintenance records, look at schematics and order
parts.” “In
the past, they would have to exit out of the tunnel, get
a manual, and open a ‘shopping cart’ above ground—it would
waste an hour on average,” continues Prokop. “But this
ruggedized fiber optic cabling has brought the timesaving convenience
of enterprise-wide computing into our domain now.
The cables have never failed us.” Under
such circumstances, the value of high-quality, ruggedized
tight-buffered fiber optic cables currently helps harsh-environment
industries take advantage of the ultra high-speed links once reserved
for white-collar campuses and administrative
data centers.
For more information, contact Optical Cable Corporation;
5290 Concourse Drive; Roanoke, Virginia 24019, USA;
1-540-265-0690; fax 1-540-265-0724; or visit www.occ.ber.com
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