Method of manufacturing an optical fibre ribbon structure.

摘要

In a simple and inexpensive method of manufacturing an optical fibre ribbon structure 11, several optical fibres 1 (and if desired one or more than one flexible reinforcing element) are arranged to travel side by side and an overall coating 3 of plastics material is applied to the advancing optical fibres to form a plastics coated optical fibre array 4. This array is fed between a pair of advancing tapes 5 and the advancing taped plastics coated optical fibre array 8 is subjected to a curing operation to cure the plastics material and cause it to bond to the embedded optical fibres 1 and lightly to the tapes 5. The tapes 5 are then peeled away from the array to form an optical fibre ribbon structure 11. The plastics material of the overall coating is preferably an acrylate or other plastics material that can be cured by ultra-violet radiation.