Armored Cable VS. Non-Armored Cable, What Are The Differences?

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Date: 2023-11-03 16:31:00

With the fast development of optical communication networks, more and more fiber optic cables are used in different environments. What if under harsh environments? Then it's crucial to guarantee your cable is safe and reliable when transmitting data. This is where the armored cable comes into play. An armored cable protected fiber optic cable against mechanical damage, whereas a non-armored cable not being protected. This article will explain the difference between armored and non-armored cable.

What is Armored and Non-Armored Cable?
Armored cable is a type of fiber optic cable with protective armor wrapped around the fiber cable core. The armor is used to protect the fiber optic cable from animal bites, moisture erosion, or other damage. Furthermore, armored cable has Jacket, Kevlar, light steel tube, and optical fiber layers to protect the cable. The plastic outer jacket protects against rodents, abrasion, and twists. The light steel tube between the optic fibers and the outer jacket offers better protection to the fibers in the center, and the Kevlar is placed inside the outer jacket to cover the steel tube.

The non-armored cable or unarmored cable is a type of fiber optic cable without armoring protection layer. For example, the non-armored stranded loose tube fiber optic cable provides FRP (fiber-reinforced plastic) as the central member, ensuring resistance to electromagnetic interference. High strength loose tube is hydrolysis resistant and the tube-filling compound ensures critical protection of the fiber. The water-blocking material between a single polyethylene (PE) jacket and the loose tube is applied to keep the cable compact and watertight.

Armored VS. Non-Armored Cables
Structure
A lot of people may believe that armored cable is only metal for protection. To be more specific, the armoring material doesn't have to be metal, it might be fiber yarn, glass yarn, polyethylene, etc. The only thing that makes armored cable different from unarmored cable is that armored cable has an additional outer protective layer for optical cable. The 4-core armored cable tends to be more expensive than unarmored cable, while the armored cable with steel strip and aluminum is much cheaper than armored fiber cable with Kevlar, which is usually used for special occasions.

Applications
Armored cable is used in aerial and duct installation in core networks, metropolitan area networks (MAN), LAN, access networks, backbone networks, FTTH, data centers, and indoor, outdoor, and indoor/outdoor applications.
Non-armored cable is used in aerial and duct installation, outdoor distribution, control systems, trunk power transmission systems, access networks, and local networks in high electromagnetic interfering places.

Conclusion
Armored cable is much stronger and tougher than non-armored cable. The Armored cable provides good pressure resistance, high reliability, high security, high flexibility, and durability when used in harsh environments, easy to install, but is more expensive than non-armored cable. Sun Telecom provides a wide range of options for high-quality armored cable and non-armored cable products to the global market.
　

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