Optical fibers are tiny strands of glass or plastic as thin as or even less than a human hair that carry digital information over long distances. They form Fiber Cable which contains bundles of these strands. From a technical standpoint, fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass or plastic rods that can transmit data signals.
With glass and plastic fiber, the signal bounces along the length of the fiber until it gets to a repeater, where the signal is cleaned up and retransmitted. Take away the fiber, and the signal just hits the outside cladding of the cable and fizzles.
Glass Fiber
Glass fiber-optic cables are constructed of tiny strands of glass that are bundled together inside an application-specific sheathing like stainless steel for durability and high temperatures. They are attached to certain photoelectric sensors and guide light from the sensing head to the target. Basically, Large Core Fiber enables you to use a photoelectric sensor in areas where you wouldn’t normally be able to use them. The sensors are available with a wide range of housings, mounting styles, and features for your specific application.
Glass fiber-optic cables have an impressive temperature range, as low as -40 °F and up to +900 °F. That’s because the cables have no electrical components. They merely act as a conduit, or light guide between the target and the sensor. So, they can be used in high-temperature applications like furnaces, ovens, and condensers in large engines, and they can also be used in extremely low temperature areas such as cold storage warehouses.
And because glass cores are efficient at transmitting light, allowing for significantly higher transfer speeds, they can be used at long sensing distances. Glass fiber optic cables are extremely versatile and robust and are available in a mix of configurations, end fittings, and adapter types. Even more, glass fiber optic cables are optimized for small spaces and small targets. They can be used with both visible red and infrared light and are compatible with a long list of fiber heads.
Plastic optical fiber
Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) is an optical fiber which is made out of plastic rather than traditional glass. With very small diameter, the POF cable is easy to run along skirting boards, under carpets and around tight corners. It offers additional durability for uses in data communications, as well as decoration, illumination and industrial application. The plastic optical fiber as the ideal short-range communication network transmission medium, has an important position in military communication network and multimedia equipment in the data transmission.
Plastic Fiber Compared With Glass Fiber
The light passes through the central portion of the plastic optical fiber diameter of about 1mm, about 100 times larger than the glass fiber, and the connection between the fiber connection and personal computer terminal apparatus is very easy.
Plastic optical fiber, although the light-transmitting differential, light loss is large, the initial ships of 300 dB/km, the transmission optical narrow band (limited to the visible region), difficult to adapt to the needs of the multimedia communication network, but it has a series of advantages, including light and soft, flexural, impact strength, cheap, anti-radiation, easy to process and can be made (1 to 3 mm in diameter, in order to increase the light-angle, expand the scope of), so favored.
In addition, Plastic Optical Fibers installation costs low, very simple installation can align the connector plug, this plug can be used existing technology to produce.
