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- General Description
- Fusion splicer used to join two optical fibers
- Applicable Fiber: Single mode and multi mode silica based optical glass fiber (including Polarization Maintaining fiber)
- Cleave Length:
- Bare Fiber Clamp: 8-10 mm
- Coating Clamp: 3-5 mm
- Mean Splice Strength: 30 Newtons
- Dimensions: 311 mm (width) / 218 mm (depth) / 133 mm (height)
- Weight: 6.1 kg
- AC Adaptor: input power 100-240 VAC (50 to 60 Hz)
- Automatic Arc Power Compensation
- Wind Resistance: Maximum permissable wind velocity: 5 m/s
- Operating Instuctions
Preparing a Splice
Cleaving
- 1) Place the fiber in the correct size V-groove clamp (250 um for normal fibers).
- 2) Insert the V-groove clamp with the fiber in it into the stripping device.
- 3) Check to make sure the fiber is aligned correctly and then close clamp around the V-groove clamp and lower the hood of the fiber stripper.
- 4) Press down on the hood of the fiber stripper until the light on the front of the device turns green and then gently pull back on the V-groove clamp until the end of the fiber has been completely stripped of its coating.
- 5) Using delicate wipes and isoproponal, clean the newly stripped region.
- 6) Place the V-groove clamp into the fiber cleaver and again check to make sure the fiber is correctly aligned. The fiber should be flat side up (if applicable) and should go straight through the middle line on the right side of the cleaving blade. It pays to have this aligned correctly because the fusion splicer needs to have very precise cleaves to work (usually less than a 2 degree angle on the cleave).
- 7) After the fiber is correctly aligned, lower the hood and the arm.
- 8) Slide the blade across bottom of the fiber to score it.
- 9) Press down on the arm to finish the cleave.
Inserting the fibers
- 1) Place both fibers into V-groove clamps that are the correct size.
- 2) Cleave the two fiber ends that need to be fused together.
- 3) Place both clamps in the fusion splicer
- Note - D-Fiber must be in the clamp at a 45 degree angle or the splicer will not recognize it
- Note - The splicer is very picky about how well the fibers are placed, if the angle is too large or the fiber is slightly out of alignment, the placement will have to be redone.
Splice Mode Menu
- Note: when the fusion splicer is first turned on, it will open a list of menus. To get to the ready screen just press ENT or you can choose which screen you want to go to.
- 1) Press menu from the READY screen.
- 2) Select "Splice Mode Menu" and press ENT (enter)
- 3) There is a list of 40 different splice options. Scroll to the desired option.
- 4) There is an option to customize the specific splice. To do so, when the option is selected, press the right arrow. This will open up the screen with the different modifications that can be made to the splice. Some of the basic ones include the types of fiber that is used and alignment options. Make the desired changes and then press EXIT.
- Note: to reset a mode to factory settings, go to the Fundamental Settings screen (the first of the 11 pages that allow customization of splices) and under fiber type select one. It will set the mode to the original settings.
- 5) Press EXIT two more times to get to the READY screen.
Heater Mode Menu
- 1) Press menu from the READY screen.
- 2) Select "Heater Mode Menu" and press ENT (enter)
- 3) Select the correct setting for the type of sleeve that will be used to protect the splice.
Splicing
- 1) After the desired splice has been selected and the fibers have been inserted, press SET.
- 2) The splicer will do some checks and if they are not met, the splicer will give an error and the problems will have to be fixed. These usually have to do with dirty fibers or cleave angles that are too high.
- 3) If the checks are passed the splicer will then align the fibers and make the splice. Depending on the mode selected, the machine might have pauses so that you can check your splice and also may ask you to manually align the fibers.
Aligning
- With dissimilar fibers, aligning the core can by rather tricky. A good way to do it is:
- 1) hook up a laser to one of the fibers and a detector to the other.
- 2) Turn on the manual alignment option in the splice settings.
- 3) After placing the fibers and initially hitting SET there will be a pause to allow the user to manually adjust the fibers.
- 4) Adjust the fiber until the maximum amount of power is being transmitted and the two ends are lined up with the pink guiding lines.
- 5) Press splice again to finish the splice.
Tips
- -When inserting D fiber, it must be at a 45 degree angle or the splicer will not be able to recognize it.
- -The clamps in the fusion splicer itself are meant to hold fiber that is 125 microns. This is the size of the fiber without the casing so for better results, no casing should be in the fiber clamp.
- -Good cleaves are a must. The better the cleave is, the better the splice will be.
- -Don't get discouraged, it will often take some time for the fusion slicer to recognize the fibers and to get the inserted correctly.
- -In the customization you can change many of the functions for how the machine is expecting your fiber.
- -Cleave length: In both the Left Fiber and Right Fiber screens (pages 2 and 3) there is an option for cleave length. This is how much of the casing the machine to be stripped off of the fiber.
- -Cleave limit: Sometimes the machine will misread the cleave angle on fibers. This will often happen with D fiber. You can change the angle that the machine will allow the cleaves to be at on screen 5.
- -Arc: Page 8 controls the how long and how the machine will arc.
- -When the ready screen is up, you can press help. This will show a picture of how the splicer is expecting the fibers to look showing how much of the fiber should be stripped and how much should be sticking out the end. The close the fibers look to this picture, the better chance the machine will recognize your fibers.
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