The Dow Chemical Company is offering traverse wound rolls of Zetabon coated steel armour to cable manufacturers. The armour protects fibre optic cables from rodent attacks, lightning strikes, corrosive chemicals, and mechanical and water damage.

Rolls of coated steel tape are 2 to 3 kilometres long on aver­age and during manufacturing these shorter lengths are welded together manually, typically once every half­hour. Using the traverse wound Zetabon tape reduces the time spent welding tape, and in many cases an operator only has to weld once during a three to six hour period.