Why are protection tubes essential in fiber optic installations?  

A protection tube is essential to ensure the fibers are safeguarded from the cable's entry point to the panel. 

The primary requirements for this protection tube include:

• Robustness: It must prevent kinking and over-bending of the fibers or the tube itself.
• Capacity: It should be able to accommodate enough fibers inside.  
• Fire resistance: It should meet industry standards, such as UL 94-V0.  
• Flexibility: It should allow for controlled bends and movements, especially in densely packed ODF spaces  
• Compact size: It should be space-efficient to permit the installation of a sufficient number of tubes within the ODF.

The existing 5mm tube from H+S meets all these requirements. 

However, during a ribbon end-to-end project to increase the ODF’s fiber capacity, it became clear that the current protection tube's capacity was insufficient for significant fiber expansion. This realization prompted the development of a new tube that not only meets the existing requirements but also exceeds them in terms of capacity and flexibility.

As shown, the new tube exceeds the existing tube in both capacity and flexibility. The latest generation of LISA and IANOS ribbon cassettes and modules is designed to support the new protection tube, allowing it to be snapped into the cassette without the need for tools. This snapping method offers a more reliable form of fixation compared to cable ties, where controlling the applied force can be more challenging.

On the cable entry side, at the cable breakout plate, the comb must also accommodate the new 7.1mm tubes. Tube markings are applied using snap-in clips, where numbering, QR codes, or special codes can be easily added.

For customers looking to modernize or upgrade their ODFs with the new tubes while still using legacy cassettes, a tube kit is available that enables toolless fixation of the tube to the older cassettes.  

Discover the new protection tubes: