Furukawa first with high-density fibre optic cable into 1.25 inch conduit

Created August 28, 2020
Applications and Research

Furukawa Electric Co (FEC) has conducted an experiment in its Mie, Japan facility to demonstrate the installation of a 6912-fibre optical cable with an outer diameter of 1.14 inches (29 mm) in a 696 foot (200m) long conduit with three 90 degree curves and an inner diameter of 32mm. The conduit used was a standard product installed in conventional data centre campuses. Engineers confirmed a maximum pulling tension of 84 pounds (372N), well below the maximum pulling tension of 600 pounds (2700N) specified for the cable.

Furukawa says the cable was installed in a 1.25 inch (32mm) conduit with a maximum length of 1,411 feet (430m) in a North American data centre campus in 2020 to support live traffic. The high fill ratio in this application is not typically recommended for Outside Plant (OSP) cable installation.  However, in this application, the end-user was willing to accept the installation risk in return for maximum fibre density.  The installation demonstrated that FEC’s 6912 fibre optical cable can be successfully installed into 1.25 inch (32mm) conduit using appropriate tools, work procedures, and optimum installation conditions.

“The FEC 6912 fibre optic cable at least doubled the fibre count possible in a 1.25 inch conduit, compared to competing available designs,” said Ichiro Kobayashi, General Manager of optical fibre & cable engineering department, FEC.

FEC will continue to provide and improve its ultra-high fibre count cabling, featuring small diameter and high density, along with the tools and training necessary to successfully build high capacity networks.

The company says the continuing rapid increase in bandwidth demand has created an urgent need for data centres to increase the capacity of optical fibre networks. Within and between existing data centre buildings, it has become necessary to maximise the fibre count in existing conduit to avoid expensive and time-consuming creation of new installations.

For more information, visit www.furukawa.co.uk

furukawa-first-with-high-density-fibre-optic-cable-into-1-25-inch-conduit

This article was written
by Peter Dykes

Peter Dykes is a independent telecoms and technology journalist who has over that last 30 years written for a wide range of B2B publications and companies. A former BT engineer, he specialises in networks and associated support systems. He is currently Editor of Optical Connections.

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