AFL receives 5 new patents for fiber-optic cable, fusion splicing technologies

AFL has been awarded five patents for new technologies used in the enhancement of the company's Optical Connectivity and Apparatus (OCA), fiber-optic cable and fusion splicing products.

Patrick Dobbins, AFL's director of products and applications engineering, received a patent for a new technology for All-Dielectric Self-Supporting (ADSS) fiber-optic cable. By using a more traditional lower cost polyethylene outer jacket material with a co-extruded, semi-conducting, longitudinal strip, the same or better resistance to the electoral stress mechanism (i.e., tracking or dry band arcing) is achieved.

Wenxin Zheng, engineering director for AFL's fusion splicing systems, was the recipient of a patent for an "Apparatus and Method for Arc Calibration of Fusion Splicers," a feature developed by both AFL and Fujikura that have been incorporated into Fujikura factory fusion splicers. The technology allows for several production fusion splicers using the same program to attain consistent results from machine to machine. By using this method to establish a machine calibration for large diameter fibers (> 250 µm), each machine’s program is adjusted via this calibration method. Once calibrated using the Special Arc Calibration Method, each machine produces the same results with the same fiber.

AFL’s OCA business unit also received three new patents:

Roger Vaughn, product technology manager and Edward Morris, product development engineer, received a design patent for a new Network Interface Device (NID).

The team of Chris Donaldson, Lou Guzzo, Matthew Johnston, Eddie Kimbrell, Ted Lichoulas, Run Ron, and Chuck Turner received a patent for a "Fiber Optic Cable Management Module and Panel." Known as the Xpress Fiber Management High Density (XFM-HD) products, this product line supports the management of fiber densities up to 576 in a traditional four rack unit (4RU) space.

Lastly, AFL's OCA business unit received a patent for the arrangement of an interface module within a NID. The new design enables filter and Balun connectivity within a single NID line space.

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