Mineral wool insulation products are provided. The mineral wool insulation includes a plurality of mineral wool fibers and a wax emulsion applied to the mineral wool fibers. The wax emulsion imparts excellent water resistance and thermal performance properties to the mineral wool insulation.

Embodiments generally relate to devices and methods for production of fibers and threads for use in electronic device manufacturing. Described here, fibers can be produced and manipulated using a dual-surfaced sizing material. The dual-surfaced sizing material has a surface which binds a fiber and a surface which binds a resin. Thus, the dual-surfaced sizing material can be left attached to the fibers without adversely affecting the resin binding in later production steps.

A technique is described for fabricating one or more optical devices in a carbon-coated optical fiber. A photosensitive optical fiber is provided having a hermetic carbon coating. Further provided is a laser having a beam output that is configured to inscribe one or more refractive index modulations into the optical fiber through the hermetic carbon layer while leaving the hermetic carbon layer intact. The laser is used to inscribe one or more optical devices into the optical fiber through the hermetic carbon layer.

The invention relates to an aqueous coating composition, comprising: a) an aqueous polymer dispersion with said polymer containing monomeric units of at least one dicarboxylic acid monomer, bearing two carboxylic acid functional groups and said polymer remaining insoluble in water after neutralization and remaining in the form of dispersed polymeric particles having a mean particle size varying from 10 to 1000 nm, b) a crosslinker selected from aminoacids bearing at least two amino functional groups capable of reacting with said carboxylic functional groups. It also relates to its use in the treatment of flexible fibrous substrates, a method for and the coated or treated fibrous substrate.

An embodiment of the invention relates to a GI-MMF with a structure for achieving widening of bandwidth in a wider wavelength range and improving manufacturing easiness of a refractive index profile in a core. In an example of the GI-MMF, a whole region of the core is doped with Ge and a part of the core is doped with P. Namely, the Ge-doped region coincides with the whole region of the core and the Ge-doped region is comprised of a partially P-doped region doped with Ge and P; and a P-undoped region doped with Ge but not intentionally doped with P.

An optical fiber comprises a glass fiber having a core and a cladding with which the core is covered, and a coating resin layer with which the glass fiber is covered, the coating resin layer having a colored layer of a thickness of 10 μm or more, wherein a change rate of a yellow index of the coating resin layer after aging due to temperature and humidity under an environment of 85° C. and 85% RH for 30 days is 5 or less per day.

An optical fiber comprises a glass fiber, and a coating resin layer having a primary resin layer and a secondary resin layer, wherein the primary resin layer consists of a cured resin composition containing an oligomer, a monomer and a photopolymerization initiator, the oligomer is a reaction product of a specific polyol compound, a polyisocyanate compound, and a hydroxyl group-containing acrylate compound, the photopolymerization initiator includes 2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyldiphenyl phosphine and 1-hydroxycyclohexyl phenyl ketone at a mass ratio of 5:1 to 1:1, and a content of 2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyldiphenyl phosphine in the resin composition is 1.5 to 2.5% by mass.

Multi-core optical fiber ribbons and methods for making multi-core optical fiber ribbons are described herein. In one embodiment, a multi-core optical fiber ribbon includes at least two core members formed from silica-based glass and oriented in parallel with one another in a single plane. Adjacent core members have a center-to-center spacing ≧15 microns and a cross-talk between adjacent core members is ≦−25 dB. In this embodiment each core member is single-moded with an index of refraction n.sub.c, and a core diameter d.sub.c. In an alternative embodiment, each core member is multi-moded and the center-to-center spacing between adjacent core members is ≧25 microns. A single cladding layer is formed from silica-based glass and surrounds and is in direct contact with the core members. The single cladding layer is substantially rectangular in cross section with a thickness ≦400 microns and an index of refraction n.sub.cl<n.sub.c.

Method and apparatus for producing metal-coated optical fiber involves providing a length of optical fiber having a glass fiber with or without a carbon layer surrounded by a liquid-soluble polymeric coating. The optical fiber is passed through a series of solution baths such that the fiber will contact the solution in each bath for a predetermined dwell time, the series of solution baths effecting removal of the polymer coating and subsequent electroless plating of metal on the glass fiber. The optical fiber is collected after metal plating so that a selected quantity of the metal-coated optical fiber is gathered, Preferably, the glass fiber passes through the series of solution baths without contacting anything except for the respective solution in each.

Provided is an optical fiber which has exceptional heat resistance and is highly safe. This optical fiber has a core, and a sheath of a least one layer around the outside circumference of the core, the sheath including a polymer that contains a repeating unit (A) derived from a fluoroalkyl (meth)acrylate having a specific structure.