How are optical fibers made into optical cables
Optical cables are born from ultra-pure glass preforms, drawn into hair-thin fibers, coated for protection, bundled strategically, and encased in durable jackets. Optical fibers are made by first creating a glass rod called a preform, then heating and stretching that rod into a hair-thin strand of ultra-pure glass. The process demands extraordinary chemical purity, because even a few parts per billion of the wrong impurity can degrade a light signal. Unlike traditional copper cables, fiber optic cables use light signals to transmit data, which allows them to carry large amounts of information at extremely high speeds. Currently, American telephone companies represent the largest users of fiber optic cables, but. The first low-loss optical fiber was created in 1970 by Robert Maurer, Donald Keck, and Peter Schultz at Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated).
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