There are two main methods of connecting optical fibers: Welding and mechanical connection. Optical welding. For welding optical fibers are used welders. In our company, the equipment world's leading manufacturers: Fujikura (Japan), Sumitomo (Japan), Furukawa (Japan), Corning (USA), Jilong (China). Detailed information about them can be found in the relevant sections of the site splicers.ru. In optical welding machines will connect with electrical discharge (arc welding). This operation can be performed either automatically or manually. Before bonding the optical fiber must be prepared.
To begin, remove the protective cover from the fiber. For this purpose special tools. Then, the fiber must be cleaned from the remnants of the gel. After that produce spalling. Cleavage is necessary to butt welded optical fiber was completely smooth. Cleavage produces a special device that is called – Fiber Optic Cleaver. There are lots of instruments of this kind. Cleaved and free from dust and fat with alcohol wipes optical fiber is placed in a welding machine.
And by welding fibers in accordance with the selected mode. Typical welding machine consists of two clamps, which fit into the fiber, and two electrodes, between which the arcing. Properly stowed and align fibers to each other helps built microscope and a screen that displays the welding process. Machines with arc discharge permit to weld up to 24 ribbon fibers simultaneously. Most modern machines for welding optical fibers have automatic modes with the ability to custom programming, which greatly facilitates the process of welding. Built-in computer allows you to align the fibers with high accuracy and to choose the right power level that allows us to achieve high-quality connections with no damping more than 0,02 dB. Sovremennnye optical welding allow you to make a given attenuation of the line. Losses up to 10dB can be programmed during welding. Mechanical connectors. Mechanical connectors can do without welding equipment. The loss of their use are between 0,5 dB to 0,75 dB. Most often used in the budget lines, or as a temporary replacement weld. Brief summary. Thus, owing to their compactness, multi-functional, high quality connections for welding optical fibers are now indispensable tools for installation and maintenance of fiber optic.