Glass For Data Travel
If you listen to the chatter of some people ypu will at some stage hear the words ‘fibre optic’ cables mentioned as they chat about the the telephone system, cable TV or most likey the internet. These cable are lines or strands of purified optical glass which is actually as thin as a human hair but can carry digital information over great distances. These glass cables are also used in medical imaging and for inspections in the mechanical engineering world. London Glazing supply glass to the trade. All todays technical communications equipment contains a variant of fibre optic glass. The fibre optic cable is highly specialised and consists of two very different cores of glass, one having a high refraction with a low refractive index glass sheath surrounding it. There is an interface at one end that collects and stores the data. There is a large range of glass that can be used for this process and the higher the index of refraction of the core to the sheath, means the more information can be transmitted through the cable. The most common type of system for commercial purposes is one that comprises of silica core doped with germanium with a cladding made from borosilicate. London Glaziers are glass technicians.If you ever get to look closely at a single optical strand, you will see that it consists of these parts:
The Core. A thin glass center of the strand where the light travels.
The Cladding. The outer optical material around the core that reflects the light back into the core.
Buffer Coating. A coat of plastic that protects the strand from damage and moisture. There are hundreds or even thousands of these optical strands arranged in bundles in optical cables. These bundles are protected by an outer covering, known as a jacket.
The mission of the manufacturers of this type of system is to make glass fibre that is absolutely pure, and defect free, so that it will, when a light is shone into one end of the fibre that it will leave the opposite end of the cable over great distances absolutely perfect. To make this glass the materials must be ultra purified. Basically the glass is formed into a very thin strand not unlike a hair, and is then covered with two coats of plastic, this is like a mirror effect that reflects internally, just the same as a mirror coating inside a tubular structure. This means the light that is moving through will remain inside the glass fibre optic cable, making the transfer of data very smooth and uninterrupted. London Glaziers know how fibre optics work.