Tight buffered cable and loose tube cable are both fiber optic cables that consist of multiple fiber counts inside a single line of fiber cable for the sake of better protection and cabling.
Fiber cable loose tube tight buffer.
Fiber optic cable is available in many physical variations such as single and multiple conductor constructions aerial and direct burial styles plenum and riser cables etc.
Loose tube and tight buffered.
Both contain a type of strengthening member such as aramid yarn stainless steel wire strands or gel filled sleeves.
There are two styles of fiber optic cable construction.
Loose tube and tight buffered.
But there are two basic styles of fiber optic cable construction.
Actually when talking about optical fiber cables you may be confused about their several standards of classifications such as connector construction standard and transmission media standard.
Each fiber is coated with a buffer coating usually with an outside diameter of 900m.
Loose tube fiber and tight buffered fiber.
From the picture below we can see that loose tube fiber holds more than one optical fiber each individually.
Loose buffer or loose tube cables mean that the fibers are placed loosely within a plastic tube whose inner diameter considerably larger.
But each is designed for very different environments.
There are some similarities in their designed purpose but differences are obviously more than similarities between them.
Loose tube fiber contains multiple strands of fiber in a single jacket.
Tight buffer vs loose tube cable design.
Each however is designed for very different environments.
This type of cable protects the fiber from stresses caused by the environment namely moisture and temperature.
Loose tube cables whether flooded under the jacket or water blocked with dry swellable materials protect the fibers from moisture and the long term degradation moisture can cause.
Tight buffer or tight tube cable designs are typically used for isp applications.
And this post will classify fiber cables by their cable design standard.
The gel within the loose tube construction stops.
Both contain some type of strengthening member such as aramid yarn stainless steel wire strands or even gel filled sleeves.
Loose tube cables are designed for harsh environment conditions in the outdoors.
Tight buffered and loose tube fiber are the two styles of constructions fiber optic cables offered.
Between them there are several common denominators like the fact that both have in their interior a strengthening member of sorts that can be made of stainless steel in the form of wire strands aramid yarn or gel filled sleeves.