What Is Fiber Optic Cable Made Of?

In 2013, scientists produced a fiber optic cable capable of transferring data at 99.7% of the speed of light. 

Whilst the fiber optic cables in general use aren’t quite this fast, they can still offer much faster data transfer than traditional cabling.

If you’re a business, that extra speed could save you time and money, so fiber optic is definitely worth considering.

What is fiber optic cable made of, exactly? Read on to find out. 

Why Use Fiber Optic Cable?

As we’ve already seen, fiber optic cables offer much faster transfer speeds than traditional copper cables.

Copper can offer speeds as high as 1 Gbps, and can only manage this over distances of 100 meters or less. In comparison, fiber optic can offer speeds of 10 Gbps and beyond and can maintain that over 2 km without signal loss becoming an issue.

If fast data is important to your business, then speak to a company such as Solid Power Inc. about making the switch to fiber optic.

What is Fiber Optic Cable Made Of?

It’s obvious what copper cabling is made of. What about fiber optic cable? 

Most fiber optic cables have the same basic structure, although there may be small differences from cable to cable.

Core

The core of the cable is what carries the data. 

This is a single strand of super-thin glass. Laser-generated pulses of light are sent down this thread of glass and are converted to electrical signals at the other end.

Cladding

The core of glass is understandably very fragile.

Surrounding it is a layer of cladding. This cladding offers some protection, but its main purpose is to help reflect light back into the core so that none of it escapes.

Coating

In some fiber optic cables, there is an additional layer of coating on top of the cladding.

Not all optical fibers include this layer; some combine it with the next layer on our list.

Kevlar

In order to protect the cable, a layer of kevlar is used. 

This is the same material used to make bulletproof vests. It is an incredibly strong synthetic material that has a high tensile strength-to-weight ratio. This makes it ideal for use in strengthening fiber optic cables.

Outer Jacket

Finally, the entire thing is surrounded by an outer jacket.

This is often made from PVC and offers a level of protection to the layers beneath. Depending on where the cables are to be located, different materials may be used for the outer jacket. For example, some fiber optic cables use a more fire-retardant material to protect the parts inside.

Looking for More Business Tips and Information?

What is fiber optic cable made of? Well, now you know.

If you don’t already have fiber optic at your place of business, you should definitely consider making the leap.

Looking for more useful business content? Be sure to check out the rest of the site.