AFL receives seven new patents

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Spartanburg-based manufacturer AFL has received seven patents for developing new products and technologies within the cable and connectivity division, accessories division, and test and inspection division, according to a news release.

AFL’s cable and connectivity division received four of the patents that include:

• a method to apply an aluminum coating layer to the core of copper wire;
• a composite micro-cable optimized to be jetted into the existing coax cable sheaths after the core had been extracted;
• an optical fiber furcation transition assembly that accepts a variety of flat drop fiber optic cables, and
• PoliMOD, a field-installable optical module with configurable cable attachment.

The accessories division received two patents:

• a swage high voltage cable terminal which eliminates the deviation-prone additive method and expands upon a tried-and-true process from the transmission product line with the resultant profile and product finish being naturally corona-free at high voltages, and
• A flat drop cable tangent accessory that provides a means of suspending flat drop cables used in fiber-to-the-home applications.

The test and inspection division received a patent for an optical time domain reflectometer, or OTDR, merging technique for traces captured by using different settings, the release said. The technique features a shorter laser pulse that can produce traces of more accurate location information, and a longer pulse that produces traces with less noise for a more reliable result.