Air-blown optical cable technology

July 19, 2025
Latest company news about Air-blown optical cable technology

Air-blown optical cable technology is an engineering technology that uses high-pressure airflow to push the optical cable to be laid in a suspended manner. Its core lies in the use of aerodynamic principles to achieve efficient and safe optical cable deployment.

‌Basic principles and technical features‌

Air-blown optical cable technology mainly relies on the power combination generated by compressed air to complete the laying, which includes three key mechanical effects:

‌Traction‌: The dragger moves forward under the push of compressed air, forming a pulling force on the optical cable;‌
‌Suspension force‌: The high-speed airflow forms an air cushion layer between the optical cable and the pipe wall, and the friction coefficient is reduced to that of the traditional traction method;‌
‌Transport force‌: The hydraulic crawler of the cable blowing machine continuously pushes the optical cable, forming a synergistic effect with the traction force. ‌‌
‌Core equipment and material characteristics‌

The system consists of three core components:

‌High-pressure air source system‌: Provides compressed air with a pressure of 0.6-1.5MPa and a flow rate of >10m³/min. ‌‌
‌Silicon core pipeline system‌: The inner wall silicon core layer contains a guide groove (microtube with a diameter of >5mm). The friction coefficient is ≤0.15, which can adapt to the cable blowing speed of 60-100m/min. ‌‌

Optimized cable structure‌:
Micro air-blown optical cable adopts HDPE outer sheath + aramid reinforcement layer.
The diameter can be reduced to 3mm, and a single tube can accommodate up to 288 optical fibers. ‌‌‌‌