Hello everyone,
There are many tools and instruments for inspecting, clean and measuring in optical networks: tools for cleaning, microscope, visual fiber tracer, visual fault locator, light source, optical power meter, PON meter, reference cables, OTDR, fiber identifier, etc. This is a big theme.
When we finished some optical links, we must test it. We have to check total attenuation, attenuation in every event, optical power and inspect and clean optical connectors.
Today, I will talk about tools for inspecting and clean optical connectors.
Tools for cleaning optical connectors
If the network/link has optical connectors, we have to inspect and clean all optical connectors. This is a very important step. Dust is all around us. That’s why we have to constantly clean the connectors. New connectors also need to be cleaned. We clean the connectors both during measurement and during installation. Dirty optical connectors can sometimes damage the fibers or disconnect the optical link (very big attenuation, sometimes reaches 4-5 dB).
To inspect optical connectors, we use a microscope (I will talk about it in the next theme). If we find dirty connectors, we have to clean it. For cleaning, there are many methods. We can use the simplest method with alcohol (99% pure) and wipe, or better solutions with a wet method with special effective fluid and effective wipe or some dry method such as one-click cleaner.
In the next pictures, we can see wipes and one clean cleaner. Wipes are used for cleaning fibers for splicing and one-click cleaner is used for cleaning optical connectors (there are two types of one-click cleaners for SC/ST/FC – 2.5mm ferrules, and LC/MU – 1.25mm ferrules).
The process is inspected – clean – inspect. If there is a dirty connector yet, we must repeat the process.
Microscope for inspection optical connectors
Like I said, for inspection optical connectors we use a microscope. Generally, we must always clean connectors and we have to follow the procedure: inspect – clean – inspect.
There are many different microscopes for the inspection of optical connectors. For multimode connectors, the microscope must have magnification from 100 to 200x, and for singlemode connectors, the microscope has magnification up to 400x. There are many methods for inspecting optical connectors. I will not talk about it in detail.
Today, there are many modern microscopes with excellent magnification for singlemode and multimode connectors and with special software for easy display and analysis contamination.
In the next picture, there is a microscope.
For more information, please click:
Main instruments for measuring in optical networks (2)
Main instruments for measuring in optical networks (3)
Main instruments for measuring in optical networks (4)
Thank you!
