Materials supplier GEON recently announced it has developed a polyvinyl chloride compound that meets or exceeds plenum-performance requirements and can be used in shielded and unshielded copper-cable designs. The company says the compound allows manufacturers of communications cable “to replace some, or all, of the fluoropolymer inners with significantly less-expensive polyolefin materials while still meeting UL 910 and NFPA 262 requirements.”
The GEON Plenstar Flex WJJP603 compound “has superior smoke and flame suppression,” the company added. The material meets or exceeds all physical and mechanical performance requirements for current plenum grades, and processes at an adequate line sped, GEON added.
“Communication cable manufacturers have historically been forced to use expensive fluoropolymers as inner jackets when PVC is employed as the outer jacketing material in plenum [CMP] cables,” the company explained when recalling the impetus for its innovation team to develop the new compound. It said several of its customers that manufacture communications cable asked the company to develop a PVC formulation that was plenum-worthy. The result is Plenstar Flex WJJP603.
The compound “has superior smoke and flame suppression, enabling manufacturers to replace some, or all, of the fluoropolymer inners with significantly less expensive polyolefin materials and meet UL 910 and NFPA 262 requirements, reducing the overall cost of their cables in both shielded and unshielded plenum cable designs,” GEON emphasized. “In addition, this formulation allows them to keep pace with a growing demand for riser and plenum products. This grade further expands GEON’s PVC compound portfolio for communications riser and plenum applications such as UL 444 category data cables, RG coaxial cables, optical fiber distribution cables, and breakout cables,” the company concluded.
The Plenstar Series includes five grades of plenum jacketing cable compounds, including some designed for use in fiber-optic cables. Customization is possible for modified performance enhancements to meet flame and smoke requirements. “For manufacturers of telecommunication cables, Plenstar formulations offer the same reliability, quality, and convenience customers can expect with any product from GEON,” according to a Plenstar product bulletin. “The Plenstar Plenum Series is specifically formulated for plenum applications in telecommunications copper wire.”
You can find more information about Plenstar and GEON here.