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Prysmian fiber cable colors: which Prysmian is it?

On Prysmian's North American cables, the fibers and buffer tubes follow the standard US 12-color sequence: blue, orange, green, brown, slate, white, red, black, yellow, violet, rose and aqua. Prysmian's own Color Code Guide for Fiber Optic Specifications says this in its first line and labels the table TIA-598. The catch is that Prysmian isn't one catalog. Its European Draka-branded UCFIBRE datasheets list a red-first fiber order, and a tube holding 24 fibers can be marked two different ways depending on the product family. So reading a Prysmian cable comes down to three checks: which Prysmian it is, how many fibers sit in each tube, and how the second dozen is marked.

Prysmian's North American color order

Prysmian's color guide (document TLS-0007-1025) is worth reading in full before a job on Prysmian cable. Past 12 tubes, the colors repeat with a stripe:

The two exceptions follow one logic. A black stripe on a black tube can't be seen, and neither can a red stripe on a red tube, so Prysmian uses yellow at exactly those positions. If a generic chart ever showed you something else at tube 20 or 31 and you suspected the chart, you were right to check it against Prysmian's guide.

Tubes with more than 12 fibers: two schemes, not one

Prysmian's guide describes two ways of marking a buffer tube that holds 24 fibers:

• Binder threads. A blue thread and an orange thread bind the fibers into two units. The blue unit holds fibers 1 to 12 and the orange unit holds fibers 13 to 24. The guide describes no extra fiber marking for this scheme, so the binder is what separates the groups. It names UMH1A1J-24, MDS1JKT-24 and the LongSpan ADSS designs as using it when 24 fibers per tube are specified.
• 24 uniquely colored fibers. Fibers 1 to 12 use the standard sequence. Fibers 13 to 24 repeat those colors with black dashes, except fiber 20, which is a natural, uncolored fiber with a black dash. The guide names the MDM1JKT-24 microduct family for this one.

On a binder-thread tube, an unmarked orange fiber can be fiber 2 or fiber 14, and the only clue is which thread it came out of. Cut the binders carelessly and that information is gone. Keep them intact until each group is identified and tagged.

Fiber 20 is also a position where references disagree. Prysmian's guide gives it a black dash on a natural fiber. Fiber Optic Color Code Lookup shows fibers 13 to 24 in its Prysmian 24-fiber tube layouts as the base colors with a black tracer, and fiber 20 as black with a white tracer. That gets the fiber order right for both schemes, but the marks differ: a binder-thread tube has no mark on its fibers at all. On a Prysmian cable, go by Prysmian's documentation for that part number.

The part number tells you fibers per tube

Prysmian's North American outdoor ordering guide (TLS-0003-1025) breaks the part number into seven fields. Its own example is F-EDH1A1J-12-HB-072-E3:

The fiber-grouping field reads 12, 24 or 36. Don't assume that about every manufacturer: the CommScope guide linked below shows a “12” in CommScope part numbers that didn't mean 12 fibers per tube. On Prysmian's North American part numbers, the ordering guide defines the field. It also warns that not every combination in its tables can be built and that some families use a different part number layout, so the product datasheet is still the final word.

That's why the field matters. The ordering guide lists ExpressLT at 12 fibers per tube, Sirocco microduct at 12 per buffer tube with a 144-fiber version at 24, SiroccoHD at 24 or 36 per tube at 288, 432 and 864 fibers, and MassLink ribbon cable in 12-fiber ribbons. Same manufacturer, same colors, different tube math.

One honest gap: both of the guide's schemes for more than 12 fibers are written for 24-fiber tubes. It doesn't describe how fibers 25 to 36 are marked in a 36-fiber tube. On a 36-per-tube build, get the datasheet for that exact part number before you open it.

Draka and UCFIBRE cable runs red first

Prysmian's European Draka-branded datasheets read differently. The UCFIBRE armored loose tube datasheet (I13) lists the fibre colour code as red, green, blue, yellow, white, grey, brown, violet, turquoise, black, orange, pink. It lists up to 12 fibres per tube at 144 fibres or fewer, and 24 per tube above that.

The UCFIBRE central tube datasheet (E14a) shows how that family marks a 24-fiber tube. Fibers 13 to 24 repeat the 12 colors with a mark every 70 mm, except fiber 22, which is white with a mark every 35 mm. Fiber 22 is the black position in the second dozen: the same problem Prysmian's North American guide handles at fiber 20, handled a different way.

Two things follow. A red fiber 1 means the US order doesn't apply, and a tech running on TIA reflexes will read that red fiber as position 7. And turquoise and pink aren't other names for aqua and rose. They're different shades, so read the color names on the datasheet rather than mapping them one to one. Neither UCFIBRE datasheet names a color standard, so take the standard from the job documentation.

Reading a Prysmian cable in the field

1. Get the full part number from the work order, as-builts or reel tag, and read the sheath print.
2. Work out which Prysmian it is: a North American part number in the seven-field layout, or a Draka, UCFIBRE or other regional product.
3. On a North American part number, read the fiber-grouping field: 12, 24 or 36 per tube.
4. Check tube 1. Blue points to the US order. Red means finding the standard before counting anything.
5. On a 24-fiber tube, look for binder threads before cutting. No binders means checking the second dozen for dashes or marks.
6. Identify by color only after steps 1 to 5 agree. If the fibers disagree with the paperwork, believe the fibers and get the right documentation before cutting.

Where the app fits

Fiber Optic Color Code Lookup ships 199 cable configurations, a mix of manufacturer-specific tube layouts from 6 manufacturers, Prysmian included, and generic standards layouts. The color codes hub lists the Prysmian lines it covers, ExpressLT and FlexTube among them. Pick the build, then use forward lookup (fiber number to tube and color) or reverse lookup (colors to fiber number); the interactive cross-section diagram shows the tube positions. The app carries 7 international color standards, switched in Settings, which matters the moment tube 1 turns out to be red.

All 98,898 pre-computed lookups live in a bundled database on the phone, so the app works the same in a manhole or vault with zero signal as it does at the truck. The full app runs free for 24 hours with no account, then it's a single one-time $4.99 purchase. Nothing recurring.

If the marks on the fiber in your hand don't match the app, check Prysmian's documentation before you splice. The same build-first habit applies to the CommScope fiber color code and the Corning fiber color code, and the red-first standards are covered in International Fiber Color Codes: A Field Tech Guide.

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