IDENTIFICATION SCHEME TO BOTH IDENTIFY RIBBON COLOR/DASH CODE AND LOCATE FIBER #1

摘要

An optical fiber ribbon in which the location of a particular fiber containedinthe ribbon can be easily identified in the field. The optical fiber ribbonincludes aplurality of optical fibers arranged in parallel with and adjacent oneanother, and aribbon matrix bonded to the outer coatings and encasing the plurality ofoptical fibers,wherein the ribbon matrix includes indicia on an outside thereof fordirectionallyidentifying a particular one of the optical fibers. According to a firstaspect of theinvention, the indicia includes triangle, with an apex of the trianglepointing in thedirection of the particular fiber. Alternatively, according to a second aspectof theinvention, the indicia includes an arrow pointing in the direction of theparticularfiber. The indicia is preferably repeated at regular intervals along thelength of theribbon to allow the particular fiber to be identified along the entire lengthof theribbon. In the case of an optical fiber ribbon product which includes aplurality ofoptical fiber ribbons, the indicia can also be used to distinguish betweenribbons. Forexample, in the event the indicia is a triangle, a first optical fiber ribboncan beidentified by a single triangle repeated at regular intervals along the lengthof theribbon and a second optical fiber ribbon can be identified by a pair oftrianglesrepeated along the length of the ribbon. Alternatively, the ribbons can beidentifiedwith a different indicia for distinguishing between the ribbons. For example,the firstribbon can be identified by a single stripe extending between the trianglesand thesecond ribbon can be identified by a pair of stripes extending between thepairs oftriangles. Alternatively, the ribbon matrix material for each ribbon can havedifferentcolors as a way to distinguish one ribbon from another.