Polyamide 12 jacket for polymer optical fibres (POF) in automotive applications

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Polyamide 12 jacket for polymer optical fibres (POF) in automotive applications

Bertram, Sabine

In the last five years the use of Polymer Optical Fibres (POF) for entertainment networks in high end cars has steadily increased. Polymer Optical Fibres are exposed to severe conditions in automotive applications. Long term service without changes in the optical attenuation must be guaranteed. For high speed data transmission the POF has to be e.g. resistant to mechanical stress, automotive fluids, climatic conditions and burning. At the same time the fibres have to be flexible for installation and easy to connect. Apart from the materials used for the fibre core and the cladding, the materials used for the Jacket make a significant contribution to durability and quality of the POF cable. In dose co-operation with customers we have developed special polyamides for the inner and outer jackets of POF MOST (Media Oriented System Transport) cable which are already being used in series production. A special requirement for the use of POF for MOST is good adhesion between fibre cladding and inner polymer Jacket. Currently the fibres consist of a PMMA core with a thin fluoropolymer cladding. Standard polyamides do 'not bond to fluoropolymers. In this paper the nature of our special polyamides with the required adhesion properties are introduced and the product characteristics relevant for POF are described. Further the key processing aspects which have to be considered for the sheathing of PMMA with PA will be discussed.