Hello, everyone!
Today, I will continue to explain fusion splicing. In this article, I will explain the problems with optical fibers and fusion splicing.
Modern fusion splicers do everything automatically - adjusting the position of the optical fibers, checking the quality of the prepared optical fibers, fusion splicing, checking the quality of the splices - strength and attenuation of the splice. On the display we can follow it.
During the evaluation of optical fibers, there are defects or problems on the optical fibers that are not large and are acceptable for the fusion splicing process. The following figures give such examples of optical fibers.
Figure 1. Good splices
Some problems with optical fibers are not acceptable, requiring re-splicing or processing of the optical fiber. They are problems like black spots or lines but can be repaired by repeating the ARC step. Problems such as large core offsets, bubbles or bulging splices, always require repeating the splicing process. The next figure shows bad splices.
Figure 2. Bad splices
We have problems with fusion splicing:
1. Not fused through
Very low fusion current or short prefusion thus did not completely do fusion splicing. The next figure shows this problem.
2. Matchheads
Matchheads can be the result of several factors, these are contaminated electrodes, too high fusion current, very long prefusion time, very high prefusion current, very small autofeed or large gap. The next figure shows this problem.
3. Constriction
This can be due to: very high currents, very low feed rates, very long prefusion time, very high prefusion, wide gap or contaminated electrodes. The next figure shows this problem.
4. Enlargement
This can be a consequence: incorrect currents or very fast autofeed. The next figure shows this problem.
5. Bubble or Inclusion
This can be due to: very high fusion current, poorly prepared optical fibers - contaminated optical fibers, poorly cut optical fibers, low prefusion current or time. The next figure shows this problem.
This is the end of this article. I will continue to write about this topic in the next article >> Fusion splicing (6).
Thank you!
