What is Mining Fiber Cable?

Mining fiber cable is suitable for coal mines, gold mines, iron mines and other mines. It has flame retardant and anti-rodent properties, and is a good communication solution for mines, especially in accident-prone areas, ensuring smooth communication and reducing losses when accidents occur. Let’s learn more about mining fiber optic cables.

What is Mining Fiber Cable?
Mining fiber cable (flame retardant fiber optical cable) is a special application of optical fiber cable in the field of communication, that is, a special optical cable specially used in the coal mine industry, which is widely used in mines such as coal mines, gold mines, and iron mines.

What is The Mining Cable Standard?
Because coal mines, gold mines, iron mines and other mines, especially coal mines, are accident-prone places, in order to ensure smooth communication and reduce losses when accidents occur, the State Administration of Work Safety (National Coal Mine Safety Supervision Bureau) mandates that all products that are used in coal mines including communication optical cables should have safety certification, that is mining product safety mark certification. As for others mines, such as gold mines, iron mines, etc, there are no corresponding standards. Since the comprehensive performance of coal mine optical cables is the standard for mine use, it is also a relatively high implementation standard for the industry. Therefore, other mines are generally designed and produced according to coal mine optical cables standards.

The Structure of Mining Fiber Cable
The mine optical cable structure uses 250μm optical fiber to penetrate into a loose tube made of high modulus material, and the loose tube is filled with waterproof compound. The center of the cable core is a metal reinforcing core, and the loose tube (and filling rope) is wound around it to form a tight circular cable core, and the gaps in the cable core are filled with water-blocking fillers. Double-sided plastic-coated steel tape (PSP) is longitudinally wrapped to extrude a polyethylene (PE) inner sheath, and a PE outer sheath is extruded outside the inner sheath to form a cable.

mining fiber cable

Mining Fiber Cable Types
According to different structures, mine optical cables are divided into central tube mining fiber cable and stranded loose tube cable mining fiber cable.

  • Center tube mining fiber cable: from inside to outside, there are followed by optical fiber, fiber filling compound, loose tube, steel wire, corrugated steel tape, PE inner sheath, and blue flame-retardant PVC sheath.
  • Stranded loose tube cable mining fiber cable: from inside to outside, there are followed by central strength member (CSM) reinforcement, optical fiber, fiber filling compound, loose tubes, cable fillers, filling compound, steel tape, PE inner sheath, and outside flame retardant sheath.

Mining Fiber Cable Specifications

Mining Fiber Cable TypeFiber coreCable outer diameterCable weightMinimum bending radius
center tube2-12 cores11.4mm190kg/km120 (static)/240 (dynamic)
stranded loose tube2-30 cores12.7mm180kg/km160 (static)/320 (dynamic)
32-60 cores13.9mm240kg/km170 (static)/340 (dynamic)
62-72 cores15.1mm286kg/km190 (static)/380 (dynamic)

Features and Benefits of Mining Fiber Cable
Mining Fiber Cable not only inherits all the properties of optical cables, but also adds special properties such as flame retardant and anti-rat due to the special requirements of the mining industry (special mine environment).

  • Good flame retardancy, good mechanical properties and temperature performance
  • High strength loose tube resistant to hydrolysis
  • Double jacket and single armor provide excellent crush resistance, water resistance
  • Special tube filling compound ensures critical protection of fibers
  • Flexibility, high security, water blocking system

Application
Mining Fiber Cable is used in coal mines, gold mines, iron mines, tunnel shafts, roadways, pipelines, overhead and direct buried installations, long-distance communications, and inter-office communications.

mining fiber cable application

Summary
Mining fiber cable has good flame retardancy, good mechanical properties and temperature properties, and waterproof performance to ensure the safety and flexibility of underground mines. If you have any need, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Echo Huang

Echo Huang is an expert wordsmith and marketing professional at Bonelinks with more than 8 years of experience in high technology businesses – fiber optics, IoT, and telecommunication. She is very glad to share industry knowledge and communicate with others.

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