Abstract
Application of ultraviolet-curable coatings provides optical fibers with improved strength, microbending resistance and long term durability. In the optical fiber technology two kinds of coatings are generally applied in line with drawing of glass fibers : an internal soft compliant, which acts as a stiffening enclosure, and an external hard shell which improves fiber handling characteristics. Epoxy or urethane acrylate prepolymers are used most commonly with reactive diluents to control viscosity of the coatings to be cured as well as crosslink density of the cured coatings.
Works on these systems have been concentrated on producing low modulus and low glass transition temperature materials since tough secondary buffer coatings are rather easy to design.
An investigation is presented on the influence of photoinitiators upon cure rate. Acyl phosphine oxide is a good photoinitiator because it has larger absorption at 350-380nm and is able to produce phosphonyl radicals upon irradiation, which have high potential in reactivity towards acrylate monomers.
