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Classification of Fiber Fusion Splicers

Date: 09, May, 2023
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Fiber optic fusion splicing is no stranger to all of us. And when operating fiber optic fusion splicing, we will all use the same tool, which is the optical fiber fusion splicer. So, what is a optical fiber fusion splicer? What are the classifications of optical fiber fusion splicers? Let's go and learn together below.


What is a optical fiber fusion splicer?


A optical fiber fusion splicer is mainly used for the construction and maintenance of fiber optic cables in optical communication. The general working principle is to use high voltage arcs to melt the end faces of two optical fibers while smoothly pushing them together with high-precision motion mechanisms to fuse two optical fibers into one to achieve the coupling of optical fiber modes.



What are the classifications of optical fiber fusion splicers?


Common optical fiber fusion splicers generally refer to single-core optical fiber fusion splicers. In addition to this, there are also special machines such as ribbon optical fiber fusion splicers used to weld ribbon fiber optic cables, skin line splicing machines used to weld skin line cables and jumpers, and polarization-maintaining optical fiber fusion splicers used to weld polarization-maintaining fiber optic cables.


According to different alignment methods, optical fiber fusion splicers can also be divided into two categories: cladding alignment and core alignment.


Core Alignment


The core alignment optical fiber fusion splicer uses a Core Detection System (CDS) with six motors and two CCD cameras to align the optical fibers. The alignment process of optical fiber is that the red light emitted by the internal light source of the machine is reflected by a mirror to irradiate the optical fiber, then gathers in the objective lens, and is formed into images on the Charge Coupled Device (CCD) of two cameras. The gray scales imaged in the CCD due to the different refractive indices of the core and the cladding inside the optical fiber form bright and dark stripes, and these stripes are aligned by an algorithm.

 

The core alignment optical fiber fusion splicer has high fusion performance, low loss, and is suitable for all fiber optic fusion splicing applications. It has an excellent effect when welding old and new optical fibers together.


Cladding Alignment


The cladding alignment optical fiber fusion splicer has two motors and one camera inside it. The alignment process of optical fiber is that the optical fibers to be welded are placed in a fixed V-groove, and then the fixed V-groove position is adjusted according to the concentricity of the optical fibers by using a camera to align the optical fiber cladding. Finally, two motors push the optical fibers forward to perform electrode discharge fusion.


The cladding alignment optical fiber fusion splicer has a high requirement for the precision of the fixed V-groove and must be clean and non-polluting. In addition, as this kind of splicing machine aligns the cladding of the optical fiber, not the core, the loss of the fused optical fiber is relatively large. In general, the cladding alignment optical fiber fusion splicer is suitable for short-distance transmission of single-mode and multi-mode fiber optic splicing applications.


The cladding alignment optical fiber fusion splicer is mainly used in occasions where the quality requirements of fiber optic fusion splicing are not too high, such as fiber optic to the home, so the price is relatively cheap. The core alignment optical fiber fusion splicer is equipped with a high-precision six-motor alignment system including a focusing motor, specially designed optical lenses, and software algorithms that can accurately recognize the type of optical fiber and automatically select the matching fusion mode for fusion to ensure the quality of fusion. Its technical content is relatively high and can be used for fiber optic fusion splicing of trunk lines, so the price is also relatively high.


Smart OTDR bi-directional testing


Level 2 OTDR testing of bi-directional fiber optic link testing is not only an industry standard and required by most manufacturers for warranty, but it is also the only way to understand the actual overall loss of the link. This is because fiber optic connector and splice loss measurement, as well as overall link loss measurement, depend on the test direction. Fiber optic link testing in one direction can provide results that are opposite to fiber optic link testing in the opposite direction. Since testing from both ends requires a lot of time and cost, technicians often test all links at one end first and then go to the other end to save as much time as possible. Unfortunately, this approach doesn't work. In order to accurately measure the fiber optic link in both directions, the launch and receive fiber optics must be kept in the original measurement position during both tests (this is also required by the standard). But if you test all links at one end first and then go to the other end, this is impossible.


Smart OTDR detects problems


OTDR can also maintain the performance of fiber optic lines. OTDR can draw wiring diagrams and indicate the end connector quality and fault location that may affect network performance. Smart OTDR allows probing of issues that could affect fiber optic long-term reliability along the fiber optic channel length. OTDR analyzes attenuation consistency and rate, fiber optic segment length, connector, joint position and insertion loss characteristics, as well as other events that may occur during or after cable installation, such as sharp bends.


When selecting the appropriate OTDR, network engineers should ensure that the tool has certain functions, such as loss length certification, channel/event view, power meter function, user-friendly interface, and smart remote options. In addition, the OTDR needs to provide a reliable method for recording results. For users who are not OTDR experts but need to quickly locate the problem, automatic equipment and event graphs are essential to make OTDR easy to use.

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