We here at OLC Fiber, Inc. take fiber optic splicing very seriously. In fact we have been accused of being perfectionist. We think that if your going to take on the task of splicing then you should do it right.
Although anyone can splice a fiber many don’t understand or appreciate the process at all. Fiber splicing is a fairly straight forward process these days. There is normally a highly accurate arc fusion splicer and a precision cleaver involved.
The short version of splicing goes something like this; you strip, clean and cleave the fiber, put it a splicer and push a button. The machine automatically aligns the fibers and fuses them together. Then the fusion splicer examines the splice and gives the operator an estimated loss.
Why is fiber optic splicing so important?
The truth is that splicing optics is much more involved than that. Most fusion machines use image processing to identify abnormal condition that sometimes occur during the splicing process. Some of these defects go undetected and a poor quality splice occurs. In most cases these defects can only be identified by the human eye.
Things like cracks, lip’s and incline cleaves are a huge driver in integrity and performance and should be watched closely. A good way to monitor the splice beyond just estimated splice loss the fusion machine gives you is to turn on the clad and core axis offset displays. This gives you the truest picture of what’s really happening with the splice.
There are many other factors that can give a inexperienced technician headaches. Outside of routing fibers into the tray things like bubbles, separations, thin splices or too fat are a few conditions that give less experienced tech’s real trouble. In the end many just hit the re-arc button, accept the splice and wad it into the tray without figuring out what is wrong.
OLC Fiber, Inc. prides itself on top quality full services optical splicing. We expect everything we splice to last 50 years and to accomplish this we go far beyond many companies practices. To learn more about our fiber optic services that we offer please refer to some of our other articles listed below.