Tag Archives: Fusion Splicing

How to Maintain Your Fiber Optic Fusion Splicer?

Fiber optical splicing is the act to joint two fibers together by using heat. Generally, there are two types of optical splicing: mechanical splicing and fusion splicing. Fusion splicing cannot be completed without a piece of equipment called fusion splicer. However, you can’t just use it without any maintenance. Do you know how to maintain it in your daily work? Today, this article is to give you some advice for your fusion splicer maintenance.

What Is Fiber Optic Fusion Splicer?

Fiber optic fusion splicer uses an electric arc to melt two optical fibers at the level of their faces to end and form a long fiber. It connects two fibers permanently so that the optical signals can be transmitted in the fiber with a very low loss.

fusion-splicer

How Does a Fusion Splicer Work?

Before we know how to maintain our fusion splicers, we need to make sense how it works. Only when you know clearly its work process can you get how to avoid some unnecessary mistakes which may cause great damage to your fusion splicer.

Usually, before starting a fusion splicing, the preparations need to be finished: removing all the protective coating, completely clean and then precisely cleaving to form a smooth and perpendicular end faces. When all of these have been done, the fiber optic fusion splicer takes over the rest of the process which includes three steps.

Alignment. With the help of a small but precise motor, the fusion splicer makes tiny adjustments to the fibers’ positions until they are aligned properly. During this process, the fiber optic workers can view the fiber alignment by optical power meter video camera or viewing scope.

Impurity Burn-Off. Since the slightest trace of dust or other impurities can affect the transmission of optical signals, cleaning is always the first important thing needed to be done. Before fusing, fusion splicer can generate a small spark between the fiber ends to burn off the remaining dust or moisture.

Fusion. After fibers have been aligned and thoroughly cleaned, it’s time to fuse the fiber ends together. The splicer emits a second, large spark that melts the optical fiber end faces Then the melted fibers are jointed together.

Daily Care and Maintenance

Now we have know how the fusion splicer works, it’s time to learn something on how to maintain fusion splicer to make sure the fusion procedures go on wheels. Here are some tips on how you can maintain your fusion splicers. These tips are mainly about the cleaning in the fusion process.

Cleaning Before Splicing
  • Clean the V-groove. If there are contaminants in the V -groove, it cannot clamp fiber properly and will cause unnecessary optical loss. Therefore, the V -groove should be checked and cleaned regularly. Generally, a thin cotton swab dipped with alcohol can be used to clean V-groove. If it doesn’t work, first you can use a fiber that has been cleaved to remove the contaminants, and then clean the V -groove with thin cotton swab.

cleaning-fusion-splicer

  • Clean the Fiber Clamp. If there are dusts on the fiber clamp, it may lead to poor fiber connections. So the cleaning of fiber clamp cannot be ignored in your daily work. Firstly, cleaning the surface of fiber clamp with a thin cotton swab dipped with alcohol. Then dry the clamp with a dry cotton swab.

cleaning-fusion-splicer

  • Clean the cleaver. Always keep in mind that the cleaver blade should be kept clean, or it will bring dust to the fiber end face, resulting big splice loss. The method to clean the cleaver blade is to clean it with cotton swab.

fiber-cleaver

Regular Inspection and Cleaning

In order to ensure the quality of fusion splicing, it’s recommended to do regular inspection and cleaning for the fusion splicer. The check items include objective lens, windshield and electrodes.

Conclusion

In summary, it’s vital to maintain fusion splicer to ensure a precise fusion splicing. Of course, good maintenance is necessary, but obviously a good fusion splicer is more important. Fiberstore provides various types of fiber optic splicer and some other accessories which can make splicing much easier and more stable. If you want to know more, please visit FS.com.

Introduction to Fiber Optic Splicing

During the actual operation of fiber cables, fiber optic splicing is often needed to achieve the connection between optic fibers. To be specific, fiber optic splicing is a process to combine the ends of optic fibers together. And only one end of each individual fiber is required. There are mainly two types splicing methods: the mechanical splicing and the fusion splicing. The article will introduce these two splicing methods and their particular steps of splicing.

What Is Mechanical Splicing?

Mechanical splicing is using the alignment devices to hold two fiber ends in a precisely aligned position. This enables the light to pass freely through one fiber to another fiber. In this method, the joint is not permanent. Two fibers can still be split after the signal transmission. Mechanical splicing has a low initial investment but costs more for each splice.

Mechanical-Splicing

What Is Fusion Splicing?

Fusion splicing is using the professional machine to joint two optical fibers ends together. The splicing machine will hold the fibers to align them in a precised position, then using heat or electric arc to fuse or weld glass ends together. This enables the permanent connection between two optic fibers for a continuous light transmission. Fusion splicing needs a much higher initial investment but costs less for each splice than mechanical splicing. In addition, this method is more precised than mechanical splicing, which produces lower loss and less back reflection due to the seamless fusion splice points.

Fusion-Splicing

Four Steps of Mechanical Splicing:

1. You need to prepare the fiber by peeling off the outer coatings, jackets, tubes, etc. to just expose the bare fiber. And you much keep the cleanliness of fiber in case of failing the later transmission.

2. You need to cleave the fiber.

3. You need to joint the fibers mechanically with no heat. Just connecting the ends of fiber together inside the mechanical splice unit and the device will help couple the light between two fibers.

4. You need to protect the fiber during the light transmission. Typically, the completed mechanical has its own protection for the splice.

Four Steps of Fusion Splicing:

1. The same as mechanical splicing, you need to strip the outer materials to show the bare fiber. And cleanliness is also required as an important preparation.

2. You need to cleave the fiber. A much more precised cleave is essential to the fusion splice. The cleaved end must be smooth and perpendicular to the fiber axis for a proper splice.

3. You need to splice the fiber with heat. Manual or automatic alignment can be chosen according to the device you are using. A more accurate splice can be achieved if you use a more expensive equipment. Once properly align the fusion splicer unit then you can use an electrical arc to melt the fibers, and permanently weld the two fiber ends together.

4. You need to protect the fiber from bending and tensile forces. By adopting the heat shrink tubing, silicone gel and mechanical crimp protectors can prevent the fiber from breakage.

Conclusion

Fiber optic splicing is important for fiber connections. Two different methods of mechanical splicing and fusion splicing are usually used for splicing. In order to complete the splicing process, many professional tools are required. For example, fiber optic cleavers is deployed for the cleaving step. Fusion splicers is deployed for the fusion splicing method to connect the fibers and optical fiber aligners is deployed for the alignment to enable the light transmission. Fiberstore provides all the above equipment. For more information, please visit the official website at FS.COM.