US 5,177,809 AGranted

Optical cable having a plurality of light waveguides

AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft

InventorGuenter Zeidler

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Abstract

An optical cable comprises a plurality of light waveguides, which are combined in a group of small bands, and the group of small bands are arranged in longitudinally extending chambers of a core element. Each of the chambers in the core element can have an increasing width as the radial distance from the center of the core element increases and the bands can be arranged in sub-stacks having increases widths corresponding to the increased width of the chamber. In another embodiment, each of the bands in the stack has an increasing width in the radial direction to fill the chamber. In another embodiment, each of the chambers has a rectangular cross section, with the cross section increasing in a step-like manner due to steps formed in the partitions and the bands which are arranged in the chambers are arranged in sub-stacks to fill each portion of the chamber.

Claims11

Dependent claims

An optical cable comprising a core element having a plurality of radially extending partitions forming a plurality of chambers opening radially outward from a center of the core, each of said chambers having a radially inward base of a first dimension and having portions spaced radially from the base of a wider width;

and a plurality of bands having an approximately rectangular cross section and each of the bands containing a number of optical waveguides, said bands being arranged in stacks received in said chambers with the bands adjacent the base of each chamber, said bands adjacent the base having a width and a number of waveguides to enable the band to be received snugly in the chamber and those bands in the stack spaced from the base having a greater width to be received in enlarged portions of the chamber so that an optimally large filling of each chamber with the bands is obtained, each of the bands being adapted to the shape of the corresponding partition of the chamber so that only a narrow gap, respectively, remains outside of the longitudinal edges of each band in the stack to allow slight longitudinal motion, but preventing twisting of a stack of bands within the chamber.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.