Prepping OPGW requires a few things that normal fiber optic cables don’t require.
One special requirement when prepping OPGW ends into a Stainless Steel 28″ Coyote closure, or any COYOTE® splice case for OPGW, is to add a Green Sealant Kit (Cat. No. 8003411) to the cable before wrapping the tape.
This procedure ensures that the closure is air tight. Without using the green sealant kit air and more importantly water can travel freely through the OPGW strands.
Once water enters a closure the “life” expectancy of that location will be reduced below the 50 years it’s expected to preform. From the operators perspective it’s highly unacceptable to have any location be susceptible to future failures, especially failures that could have been prevented by doing it right in the beginning.
The photo collection below depicts how the green sealant kit should be installed.
First, unwrap the OPGW strands and find the middle strand. Once you identify the middle strand wrap the sealant around the strand as show in the picture above.
Then re-wrap the strands while continually weaving the sealant into the strands through out the entire process. It is important to note that bending the strands at anytime during this process is not advisable. Any bends will take away the natural form that the steel and aluminum wraps have and make it nearly impossible to re-wrap the cable.
You should end up with something similar to the picture above. The sealant should be evenly spread across all strands and is not bulky. If the sealant is bulky (too much) the cable will not fit into the cable port of the closure after the LOCK-TAPE Sealant System has been added.