Filament reinforced tape

Abstract

Tape reinforced by means of filaments comprising a backing and a plurality of yarns comprising a multiplicity of filaments adhered to at least one major surface of said backing by means of a layer of an adhesive. The yarns are disposed essentially parallel to each other along the machine direction of the tape. The yarn-bearing surface of the backing is coated with a polymeric material that both overcoats the filaments and detackifies the residual adhesive between the yarns. The yarns are preferably elliptical in cross-section, with the major axis thereof being essentially parallel to the plane of said backing. In a second embodiment, the tape is reinforced by individual filaments adhered to the backing by means of a layer of adhesive. One advantage of the tape of this invention is that the polymeric material makes it possible for the tape to be applied to optical fiber cable from conventional apparatus without having adhesive from the tape stick to the apparatus. A second advantage is that the polymeric material strengthens the yarns so as to minimize unraveling thereof.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.