FC6S – Fiber optic cleaver
When we need to join two optical fibers together, we usually use mechanical splice or fusion splice.
- Mechanical splice
- Fusion splice
Both optical fiber slicing techniques require that the fiber tips are a smooth end face that is perpendicular (90°) to the fiber axis as shown below.
And an optical fiber cleaver is the tool to cut (called cleave in the fiber optic industry) the fiber in such a good way.
HOW TO CLEAVE FIBER OPTIC CABLE?
In the cleaving process, the brittle glass fiber is fractured in a controlled manner as shown below.
- The fiber is held with a tensile stress
- The fiber’s surface is scratched with a very hard scribing tool, usually a diamond edge
- A sufficiently large surface crack (induced flaw) is made on the fiber surface
- This crack rapidly expands across the fiber cross section at the sound speed
- Two cleaved fiber tips are created
The crack propagation process is shown in the picture below.
A typical high precision fiber optic cleaver in action is pictured below.
This cleaving process is shown in the video below
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