Blow fiber

The project aims to develop existing and new products to increase the blowing distance of optical fibers and fiber cable in order to reduce the costs of fiber installation in the future. Project partners are Hexatronic Cables and Interconnect systems, Eltel Networks and Servanet.

The fiber optic network is built through connection points (wells) connected to plastic pipes (ducts) where individual fibers or fiber cables are then installed by blowing. The cost of the expansion is largely affected by the number of connection points and to reduce the cost, it is therefore very important to increase the distance between the wells, which is limited by how far it is possible to blow the fiber cable into the duct.

To achieve set goals in this project, we will:

Investigate and optimize several different parameters such as material composition and surface structure in coating of fabric and blown fiber
Use FEM (Finite Element Method) simulations to study the effect of air flow when blowing fiber and to achieve the best possible blowing properties
Develop a sensor that is blown through a installation and characterizes how many turns and its radii it contains as well as temperature and humidity, in order to be able to adapt the blowing method to reach as far as possible
Modify blow fiber and / or fabric to improve the blow properties (based on results from the FEM simulations)
Modify blowing tools by, for example, using additional gas and / or modifying how the gas flow is applied.
Improve existing models to estimate the blowing distance, based on the various parameters that affect the blowing distance