December 2021 is a busy and rewarding period for constructing China High-speed Railway, three high-speed railway lines, including the Northeast Mu-Jia Line, the Central China Zhang-Ji-Huai Line, and the Southwest Transnational China-Laos Line, have been announced to be open for operation one after another. The safe operation of railways requires communication as a guarantee. Thus, high-speed railways are usually accompanied by optical cables. Due to the vast territory of China, the construction environments of high-speed railway lines are complex, and the optical cable products used in different environments are also different. It is required to carry out customized design, and production of the optical cables, so that the command, dispatch and data transmission of the railway can be carried out in an orderly manner.
Cold-Resistant Optical Cable, "Patron Saint" of Telecommunication Lines in Low Temperature
The Mu-Jia high-speed railway line is located in Heilongjiang Province in northern China, passing through the branch of the Changbai Mountains. The whole line is located in an alpine region, where frost heave and snow damage are frequent, and the lowest temperature in winter could be as low as minus 40 degrees.
At extremely low temperatures, the tube filling gel in the loose tube of the optical cable will be thickened, and the loose tube and the optical fiber cannot fully maintain synchronous expansion due to their different expansion coefficients, etc., which may cause abnormal stress to the optical fiber, cause transmission performance changes, seriously affect the transmission quality of optical communication and even lead to line signal interruption.
FiberHome's cold-resistant optical cable technology adopts special tube and cable filling gels that could maintain good fluidity in severe cold conditions making the optical fiber lie comfortably in the loose tube at low temperatures. After careful calculation and strict process control, the excess length technology ensures that the optical fiber can be stretched freely in the loose tube and will not be disturbed by abnormal stress. The new cold-resistant cable sheath can further enhance the low-temperature resistance of the optical cable, so that the optical cable can still ensure the normal transmission of optical communication signals even at -50°C. At the same time, the quality of the cold-resistant optical cable is stable and its life span reaches 30 years. After the application of this kind of cable, the later construction and maintenance costs can be greatly reduced.
Safer with Fully Dry Flame-Retardant Optical Cable in Tunnel Line Telecommunications
The China-Laos railway line is a landmark project of China's "One Belt, One Road" policy. It spreads out the line from Yunnan Province in China to Vientiane in Laos. The terrains and landforms it passes through are quite complex. For example, the Yumo section with a length of 507 kilometers needs to pass through Mopan Mountain, Ailao Mountain, Wuliang Mountain, etc. The bridge-to-tunnel ratio of the line of the Yumo section is as high as 87%, of which the total length of the tunnel is 368 kilometers.
Due to the semi-closed narrow space with long distances in the tunnels, the evacuation condition is rather limited once the fire disaster occurs or potentially looms. The fire may spread along with the cables in the tunnel, which will seriously threaten the lives of people.
FiberHome’s gel-free optical cable is a tailored cable product for the China-Laos railway line. The customized cable product uses dry water-blocking materials instead of the high-smoke filling gels in the loose tube and the cable core of the optical cable, which not only improves the flame-retardant performance of the optical cable but also greatly reduces the smoke generated by the optical cable when it encounters a fire. It is discovered that the light rate resulting from the smoke increased by 40% after using the new customized optical cable. Besides, the fully dry flame-retardant optical cable is easier to peel during cable construction and connection, and no gel will flow out to pollute the construction environment, and there is no need to clean the gel and no additional garbage shall be generated, which makes the cable construction process eco-friendly. Meanwhile, the optical cable is free of wiping, which can greatly save time and reduce construction costs when making joints and connections. In addition, the weight of the optical cable is reduced by an average of 10% per kilometer, which makes the transportation and construction of cables in the tunnel more convenient and efficient.
More Reliable with Anti-Rodent Optical Cable in Mountain and Hill Telecommunications
Zhang-Ji-Huai high-speed railway line is known as "the most beautiful railway in western Hunan". The line passes through the Xuefeng Mountains, Wuling Mountains and many water systems, where vertical and horizontal ravines, steep slopes, rich vegetation exist. However, there are also frequent activities of rodents, rodents cause damages to the cable sheathes, and the cable core could even be damaged. The exposed optical fibers as the results of the damages affects the service life of the telecommunication lines, and the interruption of the telecommunication lines might even occurs.
FiberHome designs and manufactures metal armored anti-rodent cables for direct buried applications, which greatly enhances the anti-damage capability of the optical cable, and provided all the optical cables required for the project. FiberHome provides reliable guarantees for the high-speed railway telecommunications in the mountain and hill regions.
In recent years, China High-Speed Railway has developed rapidly, and the operating mileage has exceeded 40,000 kilometers by the end of 2021. FiberHome's optical cables have been applied all over China, including Wu-Guang, Gui-Guang, Cheng-Kun and other high-speed railway lines.Tens of thousands of kilometers of various carefully customized optical cables, such as fire resistant cables, vibration resistant cables, and anti-bird pecking cables were provided by FiberHome to ensure the safe operation of railway telecommunication. By 2035, the operating mileage of China High-Speed Railway will reach about 70,000 kilometers. FiberHome will, as always, provide more intimate customized solutions and continue to escort China's railway communications.
