Chroma Color Corporation Meets
Lime Green Color Standard for
Wire and OM5 Cable Manufacturers
What Is OM5 Fiber?
OM5 fiber was created to support short wavelength
division multiplexing (SWDM), one of the many new
technologies developed for transmitting 40Gb/s
and 100Gb/s. In October of 2016, OM5 fiber was
announced as the official designation for cabling
containing WBMMF (Wide Band Multimode Fiber)
by ISO/IEC 11801. Today, OM5 is often used as an
improved option for data centers requiring greater
link distances and higher speeds.
In February of 2017, a subcommittee within
the Telecommunications Industry Association’s
(TIA) TR-42 committee (which develops cabling
standards primarily used in North America) decided
that the jacket color used to visually identify OM5
cable is lime green.
The wire and cable industry has many regulations
and standards to ensure safety for consumer and
industrial use.
Why?
Wire and cable colors make it easy to install the
correct option, ensuring performance and purpose
in a variety of applications such as automotive,
electrical, utilities, consumer products and more.
Standardized coloring for wire and cables eliminates
confusion or danger of electrical shock for anyone
maintaining critical components.
Many cable manufacturers thought it would be easy
to produce the lime green coloring for the OM5.
Instead, what they discovered was that not every
color provider would be able to produce this color
consistently and with the high quality needed.
Because Chroma Color Corporation, previously
Breen Color, is very well known in the wire and
cable industry for their capabilities to meet tough
regulations and standards for their customers, many
manufacturers turned to them to produce the lime
green color for the OM5 cable.
The company took on the challenge because their
team was confident that their lab experts would
produce the right formulation. Today, the company
is producing the exact lime green color repeatedly, at
the high-quality standards demanded by regulators
for their customers. Chroma Color Corporation is
currently one of the only suppliers of OM5 cable
manufacturers that can meet this lime green
standard.
.
chromacolors.com
WIRE NEWS December 2018 7