| abstract |
A cable comprising one or more electrical conductors or communications media, or a core of two or more electrical conductors or communications media, each electrical conductor, communications medium, or core being surrounded by a composition, which is essentially halogen and antimony free, comprising: (a) a copolymer of ethylene and an unsaturated ester comonomer selected from the group consisting of: (i) an alkyl acrylate; (ii) an alkyl methacrylate; and (iii) a vinyl carboxylate wherein (A) the alkyl group has 1 to 8 carbon atoms and the carboxylate group has 2 to 8 carbon atoms; (B) the copolymer is, optionally, modified with an anhydride of an unsaturated aliphatic diacid having 4 to 20 carbon atoms; (C) the copolymer has an ester content in the range of about 5 to about 50 percent based on the weight of the copolymer and a melt index in the range of about 0.5 to about 50 grams per 10 minutes; and, for each 100 parts by weight of component (a), (b) about 50 to about 300 parts by weight of magnesium hydroxide, coated or uncoated, or alumina trihydrate: (c) about 1 to about 25 parts by weight of zinc oxide; and (d) about 1 to about 15 parts by weight of red phosphorus, wherein the ratio of zinc oxide to red phosphorus is in the range of about 0.5 to about 5 parts by weight of zinc oxide per part by weight of red phosphorus. |