Optical waveguides – Optical transmission cable
Patent
1996-07-17
1998-01-06
Bovernick, Rodney B.
Optical waveguides
Optical transmission cable
G02B 644
Patent
active
057063818
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a non-rising submarine optical cable with a cable construction, which has a basic structure, that because of the low specific weight, does not prevent rising up, and a provision is made in the cable for at least one additional element, which has a specific weight that is selected to be >2.1 g/cm.sup.3 and which has sufficient weight to prevent the rising up of the cable.
A submarine cable of this type has been disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,711. If submarine optical cables of extremely light construction are used or if metal-free submarine optical cables are laid, the respective basic structure of such cables often has a specific weight which no long prevents rising up. In this case, basic structure is to be understood as that structure which is needed to fulfill the respective tasks--excluding the prevention of rising up. In the case of the known cable, metal particles are introduced into the cable in order to prevent rising up. Metal particles of this type are relatively difficult to process and are generally not corrosion-proof.
DE 34 03 086 A1 discloses a high-tensile submarine optical cable in which at least one layer of steel wires is stranded onto an inner sheath containing the optical fiber. An outer sheath of plastic material is applied on the outside to these steel wires. Such submarine cables, which are provided with metal armoring, have such a high specific weight that rising up of the cable from the bottom of the sea is prevented, that is to say in the case of embedding of the cable into sand or silt, the cable remains lying in this position protected from the outside by the sand or silt layer lying thereon. Sand or silt have a specific weight of the order of magnitude of 1.6-2.1 g/cm.sup.3.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is based on the object of providing a submarine optical cable in which, rising up is prevented in a simple way. According to the invention, this object is achieved by an improvement of a cable construction which has a basic structure that does not prevent rising up, and the cable construction is provided with at least one additional element which has a specific weight that is selected to be >2.1 g/cm.sup.3 and which prevents the rising up of the cable. The improvement is that the additional element contain at least one metal oxide. In the case of the invention, an additional element in the form of a metal oxide is thus provided, and the specific weight of the metal oxide is selected to be sufficiently large that the submarine cable remains embedded, for example in sand or silt, or in the case of the cable laying on the bottom of the sea, the cable gradually becomes buried in the bottom of the sea. This has the advantage that improved protection for the cable is then guaranteed and, in addition, the possibility of location or damage is reduced. The cable can be produced in a simple way. Since no metal parts are used, the possibility of location is also reduced.
The metal oxide may be an iron oxide or a lead oxide. The additional element may contain a sintered compound or may be at least one powdered material embedded in a matrix that consists of a thermoplastic material. The additional element may have a tubular design, may have a strand-shaped design and may be located underneath an outer sheath. The specific weight of the entire optical cable is selected to be greater than 2.3 g/cm.sup.3. The specific weight of the basic structure free of the additional element lies below 2.1 g/cm.sup.3. The specific weight of the additional element are selected to be greater than 3.5 g/cm.sup.3 and preferably greater than 4 g/cm.sup.3.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The FIGURE is a transverse cross-sectional view of the submarine cable of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The principles of the present invention are incorporated in a submarine optical cable generally indicated at OS. The submarine optical cable OS has a cable core which is formed by an (if appropriate, multilayer) i
REFERENCES:
patent: 4703997 (1987-11-01), Ijiri
patent: 4765711 (1988-08-01), Obst
patent: 5054881 (1991-10-01), Fisher et al.
Oestreich Ulrich
Pokorny Lothar
Priesnitz Ulrich
Schneider Lienhard
Schrey Wolfgang
Bovernick Rodney B.
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Wise Robert E.
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