JPS62115109A - Optical fiber cable - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain titled cable capable of previously preventing the decomposition of a cellulose skeleton by incorporating a bactericide and a fungicide agents to a yarn in the title cable which surrounds a core wire of the optical fiber constituting the titled cable with the yarn composed of carboxymethylcellulose and having a water absorbing property. CONSTITUTION:The titled cable is constituted by attaching in a longitudinal direction, a plural numbers of the optical fiber core wire 3 to outer surroundings to a tension member 2 which is positioned at the center of the titled cable and by being surrounded by the hygroscopic yarn 4 composed of carboxymethylcellulose. And then, the outer surroundings of the obtd. composite is tightened with a presser wind 5 having the water absorbing property, and then is covered with a sheath 6 to obtain the titled cable 1. The yarn 4 contains one or more of the fungicide and the bactericide agents such as 2-(4-thiazolyl) benzimidazole, N-(fluorodichloromethylthio)phthalimide, N-dimethyl-N-phenol-N '-(fluorodichloromethylthio)-sulfamide, thereby depressing an activity of the cellulose decomposition bacteria existed in water which is absorbed in the yarn, and preventing the reduction of the absorbing property.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] "Industrial Field of Application 1 This invention relates to an optical fiber cable that is provided with water-absorbing yarn to provide waterproof performance, and in particular, the water-absorbing yarn is treated with anti-bacterial and anti-mildew treatment. The invention relates to optical fiber cables that have been treated to maintain waterproof performance.

"Prior Art and Its Problems" Recently, carboxymethyl cellulose (hereinafter referred to as "absorbent yarn") has been used as a material for forming water-absorbing yarns for optical fiber cables because of its excellent waterproof performance, light weight, and excellent connection workability. Products using cellulose materials such as CMC (abbreviated as CMC) are becoming popular.

This CMC has a cellulose skeleton added with a carboxymethyl group. This cellulose skeleton intertwines with other adjacent cellulose skeletons, so it swells with water and exhibits excellent water absorption performance, and the carboxymethyl group exhibits excellent electrolytic M l when CMC comes into contact with water. Each is known to exhibit hydrophilic properties.

However, with such optical fiber cables,
The cellulose-degrading bacteria contained in the water absorbed by the CMC decomposes the cellulose skeleton in the CMC, causing the water-absorbing yarn to lose its water-absorbing ability, and the mechanical strength, such as the breaking strength, of the optical fiber core wire submerged in water to deteriorate. There were problems such as.

In addition, in this optical fiber cable, the sheath is made of, for example, aluminum laminate polyethylene (hereinafter referred to as LA).
It is abbreviated as P. ) When using a laminate sheath such as LAP sheath, hydrogen is generated due to an electrochemical reaction between the water absorbed by the water-absorbing yarn and the aluminum of the LAP sheath, and this hydrogen increases the transmission loss of the optical fiber cable. Ta.

"Means for Solving the Problems" Therefore, in the optical fiber cable of the present invention, the water-absorbing yarn contains 2-(4-deazolyl)-benzimidazole, N-(fluoro dichloromethyldio)-phthalimide, N-dimethyl-N'-phenol-N°-(
Fluoro dichloro methyldio)-sulfaimide,
By adding one or more types of antibacterial and fungicidal agents such as 10-10°-oxy phenoxy arsine, the problem described in item 1 was solved.

Hereinafter, the optical fiber cable of the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of an optical fiber cable of the present invention, and reference numeral 1 in the figure indicates the optical fiber cable. The optical fiber cable 1 has a tension member 2,
It consists of optical fiber core wire 3 .

The tension member 2 is a tensile strength body formed by twisting a plurality of steel wires together, and a plurality of optical fiber core wires 3 are directly twisted around the tension member 2. The optical fiber core 3 has a primary coating layer made of modified silicone coated on the outside of a bare optical fiber made of quartz glass, etc., and a secondary coating layer made of silicone resin is provided on the outside of this secondary coating layer. A sheath made of nylon-11, nylon-12, etc. is provided on the outside of this secondary coating layer. The outer diameter (J1) of the optical fiber core wire 3 is usually about 1 mm.

Water-absorbing yarns 4 are provided on the outside of the optical fiber cables 3 . . . to provide waterproof performance to the optical fiber cable 1 . An antibacterial and antifungal agent is added to the water absorbent yarn 4 to protect the CMC from decomposition of the cellulose skeleton by cellulose decomposing bacteria. As this antibacterial and fungicidal agent, 2-(4
-Deazolyl)-benzimidazole, N-(fluoro dichloromethyldio)-phthalimide, N-dimethyl-N'-phenol-N'(fluoro dichloromethyldio)-sulfaimide, 10-10'-oxyphenoxy arsine, etc. alone or in combination. It is used by appropriately mixing two or more species. The amount of this antibacterial and fungicidal agent added to the water absorbent yarn 4 is usually 0.05 to 0.2% by weight.
It is said to be within a range of degrees. If it is less than 0.05% by weight,
It is not possible to prevent the cellulose skeleton of CMC from being decomposed by cellulose-degrading bacteria, and if it exceeds 0.2% by weight, the antibacterial and antifungal effect that can be obtained reaches its limit, making it uneconomical. Here, a method for adding an antibacterial and antifungal agent to the water absorbent yarn 4 will be exemplified.

[l] When the antibacterial and antifungal agent is liquid or solid but soluble in a solvent, prepare an antibacterial and antifungal solution, and add the material to form the water-absorbing yarn to it using an extrusion molding machine. A method in which the antibacterial and fungicidal agent penetrates into the interior of the water-absorbing yarn by impregnating it into a sheet-like material or by applying it to its surface.

[2] When the antibacterial and fungicidal agent is a solid such as a powder and is poorly soluble in a solvent, it is granulated using a granulator and sprinkled on the surface.

There are various methods for adding the antibacterial and fungicidal agent to the water-absorbing yarn 4, but the method is not limited to these.

A water-absorbing pressure wrap 5 is provided on the outside of the water-absorbing yarn 4 by winding a water-absorbing tape. A sheath 6 made of LAP, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, or the like is provided on the outside of the water-absorbing pressure wrap 5 by a conventional method such as an extrusion coating method.

Next, the optical fiber cable 1 having such a configuration will be explained.
An example of a method for manufacturing will be explained. First, an optical fiber base material is heated in a spinning furnace, and a primary coating layer, a secondary coating layer, and a sheath are sequentially applied to a bare optical fiber obtained by melt-spinning by a conventional method to form a plurality of optical fiber core wires 3. ...obtain...

Next, these optical fiber core wires 3 are wound around the outside of the tension member 2 while being twisted together.

On the other hand, a fiber made of CMC with an appropriate amount of antibacterial and antifungal agent added is braided, and this is attached to the tension member 2 as an optical fiber core 3.
A water-absorbing yarn 4 is provided by covering the outside of the wound material. Next, a water-absorbent tape similar to that described above is wound around the second part of the water-absorbent yarn 4 to provide a water-absorbent pressure winding 5, and a laminated Aσ tape is wound on this. Next, a sheath 6 made of polyethylene resin, polyvinyl chloride resin, or the like is provided thereon by an extrusion coating method. In this way, the desired optical fiber cable 1 shown in FIG. 1 is obtained.

Next, another example of the method for manufacturing this optical fiber cable 1 will be explained. First, the optical fiber cores 3 are obtained by a conventional method similar to the method described above. Next, these optical fiber core wires 3 are wound around the outside of the tension member 2 while being twisted together.

On the other hand, the braided CMC fibers are passed through a tank containing an antibacterial and antifungal solution obtained by dissolving an antibacterial and antifungal agent in an organic solvent. An antibacterial and antifungal solution is permeated, and this is applied as a water-absorbing yarn 4 to the outside of the optical fiber core 3 wound around the tension member 2 described in 1.

After doing this, a water-absorbent pressure wrap 5 is provided in the same manner as in the method described above, a laminated Aρ tape is wound on this, and a sheath 6 made of synthetic resin or the like is provided on top of this by an extrusion coating method. The objective optical fiber cable I shown in FIG. 1 is obtained.

In the above embodiment, an antibacterial and antifungal agent is not added to the water absorbent tape of the water absorbent pressure wrap 5, but an antibacterial and antifungal agent may be added to this water absorbent tape as well. In this case, effects similar to those of the above embodiment can be obtained.

Hereinafter, the effects of the optical fiber cable of the present invention will be clarified by showing experimental examples.

(Experiment Example 1) A plurality of optical fiber cores each having an outer diameter of 1 mm were twisted around a tension member made of a steel wire having an outer diameter of 2.3 mm, and CMC yarn was braided into the twisted fibers as shown in Table 1. It was covered with a water-absorbing yarn sprinkled with the antibacterial and antifungal agent shown below. Next, the above-mentioned water-absorbing tape was wound on top of this, and a laminate Aσ tape with a thickness of 250 μm was further wound on top of this. Next, a sheath made of polyethylene resin with a film thickness of 2 mm+ was provided thereon by an extrusion coating method to produce an optical fiber cable with a length of 1 m. The waterproof performance of this optical fiber cable was investigated using an experimental apparatus as shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows an experimental device for examining the waterproof performance of optical fiber cables, and reference numeral 7 in the figure is a container for storing liquid. This container 7 is a cylindrical body that stands vertically, and the lower part of this container 7 is bent in the horizontal direction and has a reduced diameter. A cock 8 for adjusting the drainage of the liquid stored in the container 7 is provided in this reduced diameter portion, and the end of the container 7 near the cock 8 is used to connect the end of an optical fiber cable. A connecting portion 9 is provided. Note that this experimental apparatus is placed in a thermostat (not shown).

The prepared optical fiber cable was connected to the connection part 9 of the experimental apparatus constructed as described above, and the cock 8 was closed.''2, the following bacteria-dissolving water was poured into the container 7, and the bacteria were dissolved. The head height of body-dissolved water was set to 1 m. This bacterial cell dissolution water was prepared by dissolving 1 g of Chaetomium bacteria, which is a fungal cellulose-degrading bacteria, in a volume of IQ water. Then, while maintaining the temperature in a thermostat (not shown) at 30° C., the cock 8 was left open for 30 days, and the water permeation length was measured as a measure of the waterproof performance of the optical fiber cable. This water permeation length is the length by which the liquid penetrates into the water-absorbing yarn of the optical fiber cable from the connection part 9 of the experimental device.

The above experiments were conducted and the results are shown in Table 1.

(Left below) Table 1 *1: Amount of antibacterial and antifungal agent added to the water absorbing material in percent by weight
It was expressed as

*2: The unit is mm.

(Experimental Example 2) A plurality of optical fiber core wires each having an outer diameter of 1 mm were twisted around a tension member made of a steel wire having an outer diameter of 2.3 mm, and a CMC yarn was placed thereon. A plurality of bottles of this are manufactured, and each of these is passed through a tank containing a solution of various antibacterial and fungicidal agents obtained by dissolving them in an organic solvent as shown in Table 2.
After the antibacterial and antifungal agent was infiltrated into the water-absorbing yarn made of C, the water-absorbing tape described above was wrapped thereon, and a laminated A12 tape having a thickness of 250 μm was further wrapped on top of this. Next, a sheath made of polyethylene resin with a film thickness of 2 mm was provided thereon by extrusion coating to produce an optical fiber cable with a length of 1 m.

The water permeation length of the optical fiber cable subjected to such antibacterial and antifungal treatment was measured after being left at 30° C. for 30 days using the experimental apparatus of Experimental Example 1, and the results are shown in Table 2.

(Margin below) *Death...The unit is mm.

*4... Ethylene glycol *5... Ethyl acetate *6... Methyl alcohol (comparative example) An experiment was conducted using an optical fiber cable with the same structure as that used in Experimental Example 1 without antibacterial and anti-mildew treatment. An experiment similar to Example 1 was conducted.

As a result, bacterial cell-dissolved water passed through the water-absorbing yarns of the optical fiber cable, and mold grew on the end surface of the cable opposite to the connecting portion 9. Furthermore, from the connecting part 9 to 3
The CMC of the water-absorbing yarn was decomposed over a length of 00 mm.

"Effects of the Invention" As explained above, according to the optical fiber cable of the present invention, since the water-absorbing yarn contains an antibacterial and anti-fungal agent, the water absorbed by the water-absorbing yarn does not contain the anti-bacterial and fungicidal agent. The decomposition of the cellulose skeleton in CMC caused by cellulose-degrading bacteria can be prevented, and the water-absorbing performance of the water-absorbing yarn can be maintained. Therefore,
This optical fiber cable can maintain excellent waterproof performance. Additionally, this fiber optic cable
Since the water-absorbing yarn is difficult to decompose, the percentage of the optical fiber core wire in the optical fiber cable being submerged in water is small, so that the mechanical strength such as the breaking strength of the optical fiber core wire can be maintained.

In addition, in this optical fiber cable, the sheath has L A
Even when a P sheath is used, the water absorption performance of the CMC of the water absorbent yarn is maintained, making it difficult for water to penetrate into the water absorbent yarn, so that the penetrating water will not dissolve the 80. Therefore, the amount of hydrogen generated is reduced, and the increase in transmission loss can be significantly suppressed. @

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the optical fiber cable of the present invention, and Fig. 2 shows the antibacterial and antifungal effect of the antibacterial and antifungal agent contained in the water-absorbing yarn of the optical fiber cable of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an experimental device for confirmation. 1... Optical fiber cable, 4... Water-absorbing yarn.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an optical fiber cable having a water-absorbing yarn made of a water-absorbing material such as carboxymethyl cellulose, the water-absorbing yarn contains 2-(4-thiazolyl)-benzimidazole, N-(fluorodichloromethylthio)-
Phthalimide, N-dimethyl-N'-phenol-N'
-(fluorodichloromethylthio)-sulfaimide,
An optical fiber cable characterized in that one or more types of antibacterial and fungicidal agents such as 10-10'-oxyphenoxyarsine are added.