Corning Cable Systems Outdoor Cable Jacket Material – Medium Density Polyethylene

In the selection of a material for an outdoor cable jacket, a manufacturer must choose a material
that optimizes critical performance characteristics.  The characteristics considered crucial for an
optical fiber cable jacket are: ruggedness, tensile strength, heat and chemical resistance,
flexibility, stress crack resistance, shrinkage, toughness, and long term environmental stability. 
For ruggedness, flexibility, stress crack resistance, shrinkage, and toughness, a low-density
polyethylene (LDPE) would be the material of choice.  High-density polyethylene (HDPE) would
provide better performance for tensile strength, heat and chemical resistance.  The use of
additives compounded into the polyethylene resin, such as antioxidants and carbon black, best
provide the material stability and long-term jacket material integrity demanded in outdoor
environmental conditions.  Corning Cable Systems chose a medium density polyethylene
(MDPE) with additives as the standard jacket material for the loose tube cable products
because this material offers the best combination of all these crucial characteristics, thereby
yielding the best overall performance properties.  Please see Table 1 for a comparison of these
jacket material properties.