What are steps in splicing process included?
Steps involved in splicing process are as follows:
For a good quality splicing, the given steps are to be followed.
a. Jacket removal: The outer jacket of the fiber that is generally a plastic or polymer must be removed by using stripping tools.
b. Buffer removal: While the fiber is drawn, the bare fiber is specified a protective coating termed as buffer. In the second step of splicing, the buffer from the fiber must be removed with scoring the buffer precisely.
c. Cleaving of fiber edges: Cleave implies ‘to cut’. The cut border ends of the fibers must have adequate polish. When the edges are rough, one has to cleave them again or polish the edges to acquire the needed polish. The fibre edges are scored along with the cleaving tool and after that broken by bending at the scored position.
d. Positioning in fusion splice tools: The fibre ends to be spliced have to be clamped and aligned along with the help of positioning blocks. In turn to do this, light is launched by one fibre and the output through the other fibre can be measured by using detector.
The positioning blocks are adjusted that is the detector reads maximum that is an indication of exact alignment.
e. Application of heat: It is needed for fusion splicing technique only. By applying exact voltage between the electrodes, electric arc can be produced. The made ends of the fiber melt and are fused together.
f. Housing for splice: After splicing, the splice has to be enclosed along with a proper structural housing. Optical adhesives are utilized for housing. Similar adhesives function as outer jacket after the fibre is cured.